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GATHERED SHEAVES. 



FROM THE WRITINGS 

OF THE LATE 

JOSIAH COPL EY, 

Author of " Gatherings in Beulah" 



WITH AN INTRODUCTION BY 

REV. S. H. KELLOGG, D.D., 

Professor in the Presbyterian Theological Seminary, Allegheny City, Pa. 




NEW YORK: 
ANSON D. F. RANDOLPH & COMPANY, 

38 WEST TWENTY-THIRD STREET. 






1&& 



COPYRIGHT, 1886, BY 

Anson D. F. Randolph & Company. 



EDWARD O. JENKINS SONS, 

Printers and Stereotypers. 
:o North William St., New York. 



AFFECTIONATELY DEDICATED TO HER WHO WAS 

HIS COMPANION FOR NEARLY THREESCORE 

YEARS. 



INTRODUCTION. 



The papers offered to the public in the following 
pages were originally contributed by the lamented 
author to the Presbyterian Banner and other peri- 
odicals, but have been thought by many friends not 
unworthy of preservation in a form more permanent 
than the pages of a newspaper, one in which, also, 
they might find a wider circle of readers than 
those for whom they were in the first instance in- 
tended. 

To the author's many personal friends these pages 
will require no further introduction. They will be 
glad to have in the form of a book this memento of 
one so honored and beloved by all who knew him. 
To many more, however, a few words, by way of 
introducing to the reader the author's personality, 
will not be inappropriate. It will not, indeed, be 
necessary to repeat the story of Mr. Copley's life, 
given elsewhere with sufficient fulness. The pres- 
ent writer would only emphasize certain points with 
regard to his life and character which may add in- 
terest to these pages for the general reader. 

It deserves to be noticed, in the first place, that 
these essays are the work of one who was, in the 
fullest sense, a self-made man. Of the schools, 
Mr. Copley, by his own experience, knew very little. 
His school-life ended at a time when that of most 
boys is only beginning. But wide and varied read- 

(iii) 



IV INTRODUCTION. 

ing, habits of the most careful observation of men 
and things, made him a man with whom the most 
highly educated found it always a satisfaction to 
converse, and from whom it was always possible to 
learn. 

It is scarcely necessary to say that the author was, 
in the truest sense of the word, a Christian. That 
will be evident from every one of these pages. We 
may well, however, call attention to certain features 
in his Christian character which are revealed in 
these essays, and which shone out most brightly in 
his life. 

He was, in an unusual degree, a happy — let us 
rather say, a joyful Christian. If I were asked to 
name the most prominent characteristic of his Chris- 
tian life, as it appeared to those who knew him, I 
should say it was this Christian joyfulness. "Always 
rejoicing," seemed to us to be a true description of 
his daily life. Yet this was not because he had not 
experience of sorrow and trouble. Of the trials in- 
cident to this earthly life, he had his full share with 
others. But the source of his gladness of spirit was 
too deep to be disturbed by these things. His joy 
was not because of exemption from sorrow and pain, 
but because of the intense faith which he had, — not 
merely in the being and providence, but in the in- 
finite goodness and love of God, in His Son, Jesus 
Christ our Lord. That " all things work together 
for good to them that love God," was to him not 
merely an article of a creed, but a blessed fact, real- 
ized as such in a degree attained, we fear, in the 
experience of but few. The closing scenes of 
Banyan's "Pilgrim's Progress" were often recalled 
to the mind of those who knew him. A few days be- 
fore his departure, referring to his overflowing hap- 



INTRODUCTION. V 

piness, I expressed my delight that it was given to 
him to tarry so long in the land of Beulah. " In 
Beulah ! " he replied ; " yes, I have been there now 
for more than fifty years. And yet," he added, after 
a pause, " even Beulah is not quite all that it is said 
to be ; even there evil will sometimes find its way ! 
It is not perfect yet." In the land of Beulah more 
than fifty years ! The words were a happy sum- 
mary of his long Christian life ; a life not, indeed, 
without sorrow, yet none the less truly a long so- 
journ in Beulah, where the singing of birds is ever 
heard, and where the outlook is always toward 
heaven ! 

This of the subjective side of his character. As 
for that side of his life which looked worldward, it 
was marked by an elevated and hearty interest in 
everything that in any way concerned the welfare 
of man, either as regards this world or the next. 
He certainly remembered that because Christ's dis- 
ciple, he was not of the world ; but he did not 
therefore with some, apparently, conclude that with 
the world he had nothing to do, and lose all interest 
in its affairs. He was not so wrapped up in his own 
spiritual experiences as to have no concern in any- 
thing else, but to the latest day of his life was in- 
tensely interested in everything that had to do with 
the elevation of man, in art, science, and politics, as 
well as religion. 

Yet his interest in these so-called secular things 
was not that of the worldly man. It had a far 
deeper inspiration, — even his faith that Christ had 
died for the world, no less truly than for the indi- 
vidual ; that therefore this world and everything in 
it belonged to Christ by purchase-right ; that there- 
fore, again, it was the surest thing possible that, ac~ 



VI INTRODUCTION. 

cording to God's promise, the kingdom of this world 
should yet become the kingdom of our Lord and of 
His Christ, and that to that end all things must be 
certainly conducting. Hence the depth of his inter- 
est in every new development in human history. 
In the astonishing political changes, the marvellous 
inventions and discoveries which his long life, cover- 
ing nearly this whole century, had witnessed, he 
recognized the mighty providence of his heavenly 
Father, steadily fulfilling His prophetic Word, and 
by all these diverse means rapidly preparing the 
way for the final revelation of the kingdom of His 
Son on earth. He thus became a continual living 
contradiction of the mistaken notion which one 
sometimes meets, that one can not be a deeply 
spiritual man and be greatly interested in the- secu- 
lar side of life. In the highest type of Christian 
life, interest in the world is not destroyed, but is 
quickened and ennobled by the inspiration of con- 
ceptions and anticipations drawn from the heavenly 
and eternal. Of this fact the author of these papers 
was a most bright and happy illustration. 

Would that the number of such Christians were 
greatly multiplied, — men and women whose pure 
and joyful lives are eloquent with the praise of 
God in Christ, and sweetly persuasive to true Chris- 
tian living. And with this prayer we end our word 
of introduction, in the hope and belief that many 
will find in these pages some helpful and quicken- 
ing thoughts, through which the departed, though 
dead, may yet speak. 

S. H. Kellogg. 

Allegheny, Pa., 1886. 



BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH. 



HE paternal grandfather of the author, 
William Copley, was a manufacturer of 
woolen goods, in Leeds, England. He 
was a member of the Church of England ; a man 
of large and liberal views, and m hearty sympathy 
with this country in its revolutionary struggles. 
His four sons all came to this country while young 
men. The two elder, John and Samuel (father of 
the author), came about 1792. After remaining 
awhile in business in Massachusetts, Samuel came 
to Pittsburgh, Pa., purchased some property in 
what is now the heart of the city ; but with the 
expectation of returning to England, soon sold it 
again. He did not return, however, but engaged 
with his brother John in the manufacture of textile 
fabrics in the town of Shippensburgh, Pa. In 1796 
he married Jane Sibbet, one of a Scotch-Irish 
Presbyterian family from the north of Ireland. 
Mrs. Copley was a woman of a strong religious char- 
acter, and it is to her teachings and example that 
much of the pure Christian sentiment of the author 
may be traced. He often referred to her teaching 
and her beautiful life, and always with the deepest 
reverence and affection. 

In an unpublished sketch of his mother, who 
died while he was a boy, Mr. Copley says, " She 
was a woman of strong and original cast of mind ; 

(vii) 



Vlll BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH. 

gentle, but firm ; sensitive, yet patient. She was 
one of the pleasantest and most impressive readers 
I ever knew ; and much of what may be called the 
keys of knowledge, the first germs of thought, I 
gained from hearing her read, especially the Scrip- 
tures. She read poetry admirably, and no one I 
ever knew surpassed her in reading or reciting the 
poetry of Burns, or in singing Scottish ballads, with 
which her memory was well stored." 

Josiah was their fourth child, and was born in 
* Shippensburgh, Pa., September 20, 1803. His 
father soon after resumed the woolen manufactur- 
ing business in Blairsville, Pa., but with disastrous 
results, due mainly to the troubles between this 
country and England, and the consequent com- 
mercial depression. His health gradually failed, 
and he died poor in 181 3. To quote again from 
the unpublished memoir : " These were days of 
trial and sorrow, while we all worked diligently, 

and felt the necessity of doing so It was a 

time of stern necessity, yet the memory of it is 
sweet ; for there was more light than darkness, 
more joy than sorrow ; and it was during this try- 
ing period, more than any other, that my sainted 
mother was made perfect through suffering." He 
tells us in "A Memory of Early Life,"* how he 
was apprenticed at an early age to the printing 
business, and in addition to the office work carried 
the mail on horseback between Indiana, Johnstown, 
and Bedford, as well as from Indiana via Kittan- 
ning and Butler to Freeport, taking the routes 



* In " Gatherings in Beulah." 



BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH. IX 

alternately. We can imagine but faintly the lone- 
liness and weariness of those long rides, in all 
weather ; rising before it was light, to travel often 
through unbroken snow, and this for a boy of but 
fifteen and upwards. Yet, though he does not tell 
us so, we can believe that very much of the medi- 
tative habits of thought, and the power of close 
observation, which were his marked characteristics, 
grew out of just this hard discipline. 

In 1825 he went into partnership with Mr. John 
Croll, in the printing business in Kittanning, Pa. 
The undertaking was suggested and aided by two or 
three prominent citizens of that place, among whom 
were Mr. Philip Mechling and Judge Buffington. 
The Kittanning Gazette was the second paper in 
the little town, and so the young editors had the 
benefit which rivalry brings in such enterprises. It 
is a cause for regret that no copies of the Gazette 
were preserved by Mr. Copley. With characteris- 
tic disinterestedness he held to nothing merely be- 
cause it was his own production. He continued to 
publish this paper for eight years, the latter four 
alone. During this period his marriage took place. 
He had gone to Philadelphia for materials with 
which to print the Gazette, and there, at the home 
of his uncle, Mr. Sibbet, met Mrs. Margaret Chad- 
wick Haas, step-daughter of his uncle, and the 
widow of a young physician, who sacrificed his life 
during an epidemic near Philadelphia in 1824. In 
1826 Mr. Copley returned to Philadelphia to be 
married, and the young couple made the journey 
to Huntington in a private conveyance, and from 
there to Kittanning by stage. Mr. Copley writes 



X BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH. 

somewhere, " Together we have journeyed through 
much joy and many trials for (over) fifty years, and 
are together yet." The union was broken by his 
death, and now one is on either side of the river, 
he having passed over from Beulah land to the 
everlasting fields. 

Of the six sons and three daughters of the author, 
six children survive him. Four sons were engaged 
in the civil war. One, John Sibbet, fell at the bat- 
tle of South Mountain, Maryland, September, 1862. 
Another, Albert, was wounded at the* battle of 
Stone River, Tennessee, taken prisoner, and from 
exposure and privation during captivity, died in a 
rebel hospital, and sleeps in an unknown grave ; 
but, like the other brother, in the sure hope of a 
glorious resurrection. Another son* was taken pris- 
oner at Chickamauga in 1863, and suffered untold 
hardships for seventeen months in Libby Prison 
and Castle Thunder, Richmond, and in Danville, 
Andersonville, and South Carolina. Such months 
of agony as these were to the parents can not be 
described ; and the son who endured it rarely refers 
to what he suffered and witnessed, the memory 
being too painful. These were dark days to the 
parents, but the strong spirit of patriotism and 
Christian submission helped them to bear it. Mr. 
Copley gives us a glimpse of his experience in the 
article " Call you this Chance ? " 

The author has been too well known for over 
half a century as an editor and a writer on religious 
topics to need more than a brief sketch from us. 
He w?s connected with the Pittsburgh Gazette at 

* J. C, Jr. 






BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH. xi 

three different periods as co-editor. First with 
Robert M. Riddle in 1838-9. At the end of two 
years his health failed, and in 1840 he removed to 
Appleby Manor, near Kittanning, and there his 
family resided for twenty years. But even here, 
while engaged in superintending a farm and manu- 
facturing establishments, he continued to write, 
both for the secular and religious press, and also 
wrote several pamphlets, some political and some 
in the interests of civilization and progress. Here, 
too, he published his first collection of religious 
articles in book form under the title of "Thoughts 
of Favored Hours," and chose as the motto for 
that book, " While I was musing the fire burned " 
(Ps. xxxix. 3). From 1850 to 1852 he was engaged on 
the editorial staff of the Pittsburgh Gazette together 
with D. N. White, and again his health failed. 

In i860 he removed again with his family to 
Pittsburgh. The war had broken out ; his sons had 
enlisted, one from a large commercial house in this 
city, and the patriotism of the author was roused 
to its highest pitch. He was soon at work again 
on the now larger editorial staff of the Pittsburgh 
Gazette, and remained in this position, more or less 
actively engaged, for some years, and even after he 
had retired from it, continued to contribute to its 
columns vigorous articles on a wide range of sub- 
jects, until within six months of his death. 

Mr. Copley was a Presbyterian, and united with 
that church in very early life. Much as he loved 
his own church, he gladly recognized other evangel- 
ical denominations as simply other divisions of the 
same great army. Soon after Mr. Copley's death, 



Xll BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH. 

one who knew him well * gave a description of his 
character in an article in the Presbyterian Banner, 
which is so true that we give a portion of it here : 
" While far removed from the position of a radical, 
yet he could not be termed a conservative. New 
ideas and new theories had a charm for him. After 
a thorough analysis and comparison, if he found 
anything that was good and true, he accepted it. 
An illustration of this feature of his character will 
make it clearer than any words. In December last, 
after Mr. Copley was taken sick, but when he was 
strong enough to spend his time in his library, the 
writer passed a morning with him. A few days be- 
fore, his daughter had given him a copy of the in- 
dependent revision and translation of the ' Book of 
Psalms,' by Dr. John DeWitt, and he had, with 
very great interest, been comparing it with the old 
King James' version. He had naturally first turned 
to those Psalms with which he was most familiar, 
and which had been his solace and stay during the 
experience of a long life. After a most careful 
examination, he expressed a decided preference for 
the new version. Some few renderings he criti- 
cised severely ; but as we sat there he eagerly 
selected and read many passages where he thought 
an obscurity had been swept away and the true 
sense and beauty fully expressed. He feared that 
what he termed ' slavish adherence to old forms of 
expression ' would prevent the favorable reception 
of the revision, and thus deprive many Christians 
of that which it might be their privilege to enjoy. 



: Mr. Joseph Albree. 



BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH. xiii 

It was with real sorrow that he pointed out this 
sentence from Dr. DeWitt's preface : ' Those who 
wish and hope to see the thought of the original 
(Old Testament) put forth in the clearest, strongest, 
and best English expression will not be gratified/ 

" He had confidently hoped that the forthcoming 
revision of the Old Testament would be even bet- 
ter than that of the New ; but this remark of one of 
the revision committee, together with the publica- 
tion of this independent translation, had greatly 
lowered his ideas of its excellence. Deprecating 
the opinion of some Christians that the doctrine 
of immortality was not contained in the Psalms, 
he triumphantly turned to the seventy-first and 
seventy-third, and read portions, that to his mind 
were revelations of both the resurrection of the 
body and the conscious everlasting existence of 
the soul. Within a few days after this visit, Mr. 
Copley cast his thoughts on this subject into an 
article which was published in the United Presby- 
terian of December 25, 1884.* 

" That a man of eighty-two years of age, who 
had fed upon and loved the Psalms all through his 
life should, when near its close, so quickly discover 
and so gladly welcome the old thought in a new 
and unfamiliar form is certainly remarkable. In 
1878 Mr. Copley published a volume entitled 
' Gatherings in Beulah.' A few words from its 
characteristic preface will make evident the cheer- 
ful and joyous spirit of his life : ' It has been the 
happy lot of the writer to have had his place in 



* " A Crippled Translation." 



XIV BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH. 

Beulah since his childhood, and never to doubt 
that the kind and loving Proprietor was speaking 
to him and to all when He said, " Eat, friends." 
So for many years he has been gathering the fruits 
of that safe and happy land. The fruits that grow 
on the other side of the river are better still ; and 
many who are now dwelling in Beulah will soon be 
there, the writer among the rest.' Joy and peace 
in believing marked the entire life of our departed 
friend." 

Perhaps next to the Bible itself, Mr. Copley read 
and loved " The Pilgrim's Progress " above all other 
books, and he often compared events in his own 
life, or that of others, with the experiences of 
Christian and his friends. From it he chose the 
title of the book published a few years ago, and 
having selected from the articles written since that 
time enough for a second book of the same size, 
which he was almost ready to publish when he was 
laid aside, he said to his family, " I would like it to 
be called by the same name, for it is the result of 
ten more years' sojourn in the same land of Beulah." 
And so the title of the new book is nearly the 
same as the other. 

At length the summons came, after a pilgrimage 
of over fourscore years. After November, 1884, 
he never left the house, and the last day of that 
year was the last in which he left his sick-room. 
Very gradually his earthly tabernacle was removed. 
He suffered intensely at times, but with intervals 
of ease and rest. As the body failed, the spirit 
grew stronger, and his faith shone brighter ; so 
that all who came in contact with him felt their 



BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH. XV 

own faith strengthened and their hopes quickened. 
Never was a sick-room brightened by a more joyous 
confidence in God, or more perfect submission to 
His will. 

The unseen world was as real to him as the one 
he was about to leave ; " Why, it will be just like 
going from this room into another/' said he ; and 
once, longing for sleep, he said, " How pleasant it 
would be to sleep awhile and waken on the other 
side." So often did these and similar expressions 
fall from his lips, that those who loved him best 
felt it would be wrong to wish to hold him back. 
Said a friend, after an hour's conversation, in which 
he went over many of his past experiences and 
talked still more of his blessed anticipations, " I 
could listen to him for hours ; it is like talking to 
one who has already been on the other side and is 
come to tell us a little of it." And yet when the 
brink of the river was reached, and his feet touched 
its cold waters, it seemed a strange dealing with 
this beloved pilgrim that he should shrink back, 
and trembling on the very border-land, exclaim, " I 
am in the river now, its waters are about me, and I 
can not see the other side." As it is written, "A 
great horror and darkness fell upon Christian," so 
was it with him, and the words of encouragement 
from those he was leaving seemed to come to him 
amid the surging of the waters of the river of 
death. 

Whether this was, as Bunyan has it, " through 
the machinations of the Adversary," or whether 
through the failure of his power to apprehend that 
in which he trusted, he seemed to be left in his 



xvi BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH. 

weakness to cope with death alone, feeling as if 
God had hidden His face from him, we can not tell. 
But the arm on which he had leaned so long had 
not let him go, and soon he felt its strong uphold- 
ing power, and the waters did not overflow him. 
Peacefully he sank to rest in the evening of March 
2, 1885. Like Enoch, throughout life, he " walked 

with God, and he was not, for God took him." 

•* # •* 

Pittsburgh, Pa., 1886. 






CONTENTS. 



PAGE 

"Not a Stranger," i 

The World Before the Flood, .... 8 

The Blessing of Ishmael, 13 

The Blessing of Joseph, 19 

God's Delight in His People, . . . .25 

The Rechabites, 29 

The Twenty-Third Psalm, 39 

The Fifty-First Psalm, ...... 43 

A New Revision of the Psalms, . . . .46 

A Crippled Translation, 54 

Man's Limitations, 58 

Is Our National Constitution Atheistic? . 62 

A Very Common Delusion, 69 

Sacred Songs of the Centuries, . . . .71 

Call You This Chance? 80 

Recollections of Boyhood, 84 

A Map of the World, A.D. 1490, . . . .91 

Former Days and These, 95 

The Root of All Evil, 102 

The Antidote 109 

Scripture Revision, ,. .112 

Up and Down, 119 

Sorrow — Joy, 123 

Origin of Lyte's Hymn, "Abide with Me," . 128 

(xvii) 



CONTENTS. 



PAGE 



The Blessings of Poverty, 130 

Thoughts for the Aged, 132 

Fourscore, 137 

Prophecy in History, 142 

Religious Progress in Seventy Years, . .148 

The World's Progress, 154 

The Ages to Come, 157 

The Fatherhood of God, 163 

The Only Begotten Son, 171 

The Children of God, 181 

The Person of our Lord, 188 

Christ's Message to John the Baptist, . . 192 

The Evil One, 197 

Names Written in Heaven, ..... 200 
The Withered Tree, ....... 206 

The Pearl of Great Price, 211 

That Oft-quoted Text, 214 

"The Sabbath was Made for Man," . . . 220 

Martha and Mary, 224 

"Take My Yoke Upon You," 231 

Feeding the Multitude, 235 

Stilling the Tempest, 240 

Many Folds — One Flock, 244 

"Continue Ye in My Love," 249 

The Love of Christ, 253 

Jesus Giving Joy and Peace, 257 

"Let Not Your Heart be Troubled," . . . 262 

A Little While, 266 

"In His Will is Our Peace," 271 

The Secret of the Lord, 276 

The Vital Element in Faith, .... 279 
The Grandeur of Christ, 286 



CONTENTS. XIX 

PAGE 

Trial and Triumph, . . . . . . 293 

Christ's Surrender, 296 

Limiting the Holy One, 302 

Gamaliel's Test, 308 

This World — This Life, 315 

Time and Eternity, 322 

"The Morning Cometh," 326 

The Coming of Christ, 332 

" Not with Observation," 342 

The Terror and Glory - of " That Day," . . 347 

Love and Wrath, 356 

Recognition in Heaven, 361 

"We Shall be Like Him," 365 



GATHERED SHEAVES. 




"NOT A STRANGER." 

j|ROBABLY the Book of Job is the earliest 
of the sacred writings. In it there is no 
trace of the peculiar type of faith which 
distinguished the religious thought of those whose 
system of worship was based upon the Abrahamic 
covenant. Judging from the general tenor of the 
doctrines uttered in the great debate between Job 
and his friends during the time of his calamity, I 
think that they lived before Abraham, and that 
they were among those who still adhered to the 
faith which rendered Abel (and probably Adam), 
Enoch, Noah, and many others, we may hope, 
who lived after the deluge, acceptable to the Most 
High. In that book, therefore, we have the ideas 
which the " sons of God " — as the true worshippers 
of the Most High are called in the account we have 
of the generations before the flood, and as they are 
again called in this book (chapters i. 6 and ii. i) — 
set forth. 

In the 19th chapter Job becomes fearfully dis- 
tressed, and cries in bitter anguish, " Have pity 
upon me, have pity upon me, O ye my friends, foi 



2 GATHERED SHEAVES. 

the hand of God hath touched me ! " At the same 
time he complains of their cruelty for misjudging 
him, exclaiming, " Oh that my words were now 
written ! " And why did he so earnestly wish that 
his words were written ? That he might tell to all 
generations that he knew that his Redeemer liveth, 
and that He should stand at the latter day upon the 
earth; "and though after my skin worms destroy 
this body (he says), yet in my flesh shall I see God ; 
whom I shall see for myself and not another, 
though my reins be consumed within me." What 
a sublime cry is this to come out of the lowest 
depths of affliction and calamity! As an expres- 
sion of triumph it has been echoing down the ages 
for nearly four thousand years, and is as strong, 
and as full of spirit, life, and consolation as when it 
fell from the lips of the suffering man of Uz ; while 
millions of trembling, struggling believers have 
gladly adopted the words as their own. 

But in the English translation the full force of 
Job's joyful assurance is not brought out. In the 
Comprehensive Bible, in which are found in the 
marginal readings the best emendations of our 
received translation that the most profound scholars 
have been able to make, the twenty-sixth verse, 
which in our Bibles reads — "And though after my 
skin worms destroy this body, yet in my flesh shall 
I see God" — is translated thus: "After I shall 
awake, though this body be destroyed, yet out of 
my flesh shall I see God." This shows us that 
away back in the days of Job the doctrine not only 
of a Divine Redeemer, but of the resurrection of 
the body, were articles of faith devoutly and gladly 



"NOT A STRANGER." 3 

held. " After I shall awake, though this body be 
destroyed," says Job. David, perhaps a thousand 
years afterward, and a thousand years before Jesus 
had brought life and immortality to light in the 
Gospel, exclaimed in joy and triumph, " I shall be 
satisfied when I awake with Thy likeness." Thus 
we see that not only the immortality of the soul, 
but the resurrection of the body, was believed by 
the saints of all ages. When Jesus told Martha 
that her brother should rise again, her prompt and 
positive reply was : " I know that he shall rise again 
in the resurrection at the last day." This shows 
us that the doctrine was universally held by be- 
lievers who lived under the light of the Old 
Testament. 

But the amended translation before me, in the 
alteration of a single word, brings out the exceed- 
ing grandeur and beauty of Job's hope, as our 
received translation does not. In our Bibles the 
twenty-seventh verse reads : " Whom I shall see for 
myself, and mine eyes shall behold, and not an- 
other." In the corrected reading it is, " and not a 
stranger." The phrase, " and not a stranger," is 
found in the German Bible. In this wonderful 
confession of faith Job rises almost to the glorious 
assurance of John, who exclaims in a transport of 
wonder and gladness : " We know that when He 
shall appear we shall be like Him, for we shall see 
Him as He is ! " When John reached heaven, and 
met his beloved Master, whose footsteps he had 
followed for years, he saw one who was not a 
stranger. So Job's eye of faith, piercing through 
many centuries, saw his Redeemer standing in the 



4 GATHERED SHEAVES. 

latter day upon the earth ; and whom, not having 
seen with his natural vision, he loved, and believ- 
ing, he rejoiced with joy unspeakable and full of 
glory. To him that Redeemer, that Advocate, 
that Vindicator was no stranger. His faith was 
like that of Paul where he says : " I know whom I 
have believed." Job. like Abraham, had seen 
Christ's day, and seeing it, he was glad. He had 
opened the door of his heart to his Redeemer, who 
had come in to him in spirit, and they had supped 
together and become very intimate — anything else 
than strangers to each other. 

To those who truly believe in Christ He is not, 
He can not be, a stranger, but a living, loving, ever- 
present friend. They know Him, confide in Him, 
hold communion with Him, and are assured that in 
good time He will call them up to be ever with 
Him, be made like Him, and see Him as He is. 
They do not think of Him as they do of other 
great and good historical characters ; men who, 
having departed, can, during the present mortal life, 
bear no personal relation to Him, however much 
their memory may be revered. Abraham may be 
ignorant of them, but Jesus is not. The saints of 
past generations are beyond our reach personally. 
We may profit by their example, but we can hold 
no direct communion with them in the present life; 
although we may without presumption indulge the 
pleasing hope that in the life to come we shall also 
see them as they are, and be brought into close fel- 
lowship with them. But in the case of the Divine 
Redeemer of whom Job spake, and in whom he 
believed and rejoiced, the case is altogether differ- 



" NOT A STRANGER." 5 

ent. Jesus says of Himself (Rev. i. 18), "I am He 
that liveth and was dead ; and, behold, I am alive 
forevermore "; and again, " I am with you alway "; 
and again, " I am known of mine," and this knowl- 
edge is life eternal, as He Himself declares. 

In the tenth chapter of John, Jesus Himself gives 
a touching and soul-cheering view of the mutual in- 
timacy of the good Shepherd and His sheep. " I 
am the good Shepherd," He says, " and know my 
sheep, and am known of mine." He is not a 
stranger to them, nor are they strangers to Him. 
" To him the porter openeth, and the sheep hear 
his voice", and he calleth his own sheep by name 
and leadeth them out." How beautifully this har- 
monizes with David's joyful language, where he 
speaks of the Lord as his Shepherd (Twenty-third 
Psalm) : "He maketh me to lie down in green pas- 
tures ; he leadeth me beside the still waters." Then 
Jesus goes on: "And when he putteth forth his 
own sheep, he goeth before them, and the sheep 
follow him ; for they know his voice ; and a stran- 
ger will they not follow, but will flee from him ; 
for they know not the voice of strangers." 

One day, some seven or eight years ago, while 
riding out with the venerable Dr. Coan, who had 
spent a large part of his life as a missionary in 
Persia, he told me how the shepherds around 
Oroomiah managed their flocks. It was just as 
Jesus speaks of it. At night they are safely housed. 
In the morning the shepherd lets them out, or puts 
them forth, as Jesus expresses it. He does not 
drive them, but goes before and leads them to their 
pasture with his voice or call. One day Mr. Coan 



O GATHERED SHEAVES. 

accompanied one of these shepherds to the pasture 
and sat down with him, while the sheep scattered 
themselves around nibbling the grass. The shep- 
herd told him that only a part of the flock belonged 
to him. " Do you know all your own sheep ? " Mr. 
Coan asked. " Oh, yes, I know them all by name." 
He then called one by its own individual name, 
which immediately came trotting up to him. " Now 
show me another of your sheep," said Dr. Coan. 
He did so. " Call it," said he. The shepherd called 
it by its own name, and it too came running up as 
the first had done. " Now call that one," pointing 
to another. " That sheep is not one of mine," said 
the shepherd ; " I know not its name." " Well, 
show me another of yours," said the doctor. He 
did so. " Tell me its name, and let me call it." 
The name was given, and the doctor called and 
called, but all in vain. It knew not the voice of a 
stranger. He then told the shepherd to call it. 
He did so, and at once the sheep came up — it knew 
his voice, as Jesus says His sheep know His voice. 
Dr. Coan said he had never before so felt the im- 
pressiveness of this sweet and simple parable of 
Jesus in which He illustrates the close relationship 
that there is between Himself and those who truly 
believe in Him, confide in Him, and yield a glad 
obedience to His Word ; and at the same time of 
their mutual knowledge of each other. It illus- 
trated, moreover, the unchangeableness of the cus- 
toms of the people of those Oriental lands. 

In the light of this scene how are the tender and 
glad beauties and consolations of the Twenty-third 
Psalm brought out ! That shepherd of whom 



"NOT A STRANGER. 7 

David speaks was not a stranger to His sheep; nor 
was Job's Redeemer, whom he knew only by faith 
in the promise of his God, and at a time when the 
light of Revelation was but a faint twilight, a stran- 
ger to him. 




THE WORLD BEFORE THE FLOOD. 

jjF the deluge there are and have long been 
vague and wild traditions among many 
of the nations and tribes of mankind far 
separated in both locality and language — people 
who never heard of each other, or of the record 
which Moses, guided by inspiration, has given to 
the world of that great catastrophe. But not even 
tradition can reach back to the period before the 
deluge. On that subject the Bible alone throws 
any light, and that only a glimpse. But that 
glimpse is enough to show us that the earliest men 
were not savages, as some of those who aspire to 
be leaders of thought would have us believe. The 
great longevity of the human race during that 
period is clearly and circumstantially stated in the 
Mosaic record, as well as the fact that after the 
deluge this length of life was rapidly, but not sud- 
denly, cut down from an average of nine centuries 
to one, or less than one. 

In the very brief account which we have of the 
family of Cain after his crime, and after his banish- 
ment from the neighborhood of Eden, a little light 
is thrown upon the state of society, and upon the 
industries, arts, progress, and accomplishments of 
that early period. Cain, while he lived near his 
father, and before he killed his brother, was a tiller 
of the ground, while Abel chose the occupation of 
(8) 



THE WORLD BEFORE THE FLOOD. 9 

a shepherd. After the murder of Abel, Cain was 
banished or wandered off to the land of Nod, where, 
we are told, he built a city and called it Enoch, 
after the name of his first-born son. This indicates 
a beginning of something like civilization. 

Lamech, the sixth generation from Cain, seems 
to have been a man of more than ordinary note. 
He took two wives, named Adah and Zillah, the 
first women whose names we have after Eve, and 
these with Naamah, the daughter of Lamech, are 
the only women named in the history of that long 
period. "And Adah bear Jabal. He was the 
father of such as dwell in tents, and of such as 
have cattle. And his brother's name was Jubal. 
He was the father of all such as handle the harp 
and organ." Whatever may have been the musical 
instruments here spoken of, their existence at all 
indicates a considerable advance in the arts and 
even the elegancies of life. "And Zillah she also 
bear Tubal-cain, an instructor of every artificer in 
brass and iron." To what extent those arts were 
carried we have no means of knowing ; but that they 
had grown to very considerable perfection we may 
infer from the sweeping expression " every artificer 
in brass and iron "; and we may farther infer this 
from the fact that Noah was able to construct such 
a vessel as the ark. Very likely wealth accumulated 
enormously, and that the luxuries of life kept pace 
with the wealth of the people. Hence it is that we 
read, " that the sons of God (those who worshipped 
the true God) saw the daughters of men that they 
were fair, and they took them wives of all which 
they chose," 



IO GATHERED SHEAVES. 

From all this we may gather that the family of 
Cain were an energetic, ingenious, enterprising 
people, and grew prodigiously in numbers, power, 
wealth, and luxury ; and then, as is always the case, 
sunk into grosser and grosser wickedness until the 
horrible state of corruption described in the sixth 
chapter of Genesis resulted. The alliances which 
became common between the sons of God and the 
daughters of men engulfed the whole race in one 
common ruin except Noah and his family. 

It is not probable, however, that much substan- 
tial architecture, such as the post-diluvians entered 
upon, after the race had become sufficiently numer- 
ous, existed before the flood, otherwise more or 
less of the ruins of such works would have remain- 
ed ; for it is not at all probable that the flood made 
any considerable change on the earth's surface. 

The curious poetical outburst of Lamech, ad- 
dressed to his two wives Adah and Zillah (Gen. iv. 
23, 24), so full of passion and of either remorse or 
desperation, as the two different readings make it, 
is put on record, doubtless, to show us that the 
fierce passions which ultimately filled the earth 
with violence had run down with ever-increasing 
force from the fratricidal Cain, the father of that 
branch of the race, to the day when the flood came 
and took them all away. It shows us, moreover, 
the far-gone antiquity of the poetic form of speech, 
which was more common among the ancients than 
the moderns. Language was stronger then than it 
is now, but had less precision. The Hebrew proph- 
ets all spoke in this form ; so did Balaam the 
Moabite, and in this form Homer narrated his storv 



THE WORLD BEFORE THE FLOOD. II 

of the siege of Troy. Wild as this outburst of 
Lamech is, it reveals enough to show us that the 
language of the antediluvians possessed tremen- 
dous vigor. 

In this connection it is well enough to remark 
that our Saviour, in all His discourses, never re- 
sorted to the poetic style of speech. No teacher 
was ever more severely didactic, none more simple. 
The Book of Job is nearly all made up of the sub- 
limest poetry, and we may accept those lofty utter- 
ances as specimens of the religious language which 
shed light upon the minds of the faithful branch of 
the race from Seth to Moses — inspired truth, as it 
was known to the " sons of God " both before and 
after the flood. 

We read that " there were giants in the earth in 
those days." This is all we know of that class ; 
and it is folly to attempt to be wise above what 
is written. It is most likely, however, that these 
were men of more than common physical size and 
strength, with corresponding courage and ambition, 
around whom ordinary men would gather and take 
them as their leaders. Thus they would become 
captains of lawless bands of desperadoes ; and in 
their mutual wars would soon turn the whole pop- 
ulated world into a state of confusion and violence. 
The longevity of men in those days would render 
such a state of things tenfold more fearful. Think 
of the same leaders of bands of desperadoes rang- 
ing around the world, century after century, with 
ever increasing power, depravity, and cruelty. So 
horrible was the condition of things that even God 
Himself used the lan^ua^e of sorrow and distress 



12 GATHERED SHEAVES. 

at the contemplation of the scene ; and then, 
after providing for the salvation of Noah and his 
family, swept the earth with a flood of water. It 
was an act of mercy on His part, as well as one of 
justice. 




THE BLESSING OF ISHMAEL. 

jlHE faith and patience of Abraham were 
long and severely tried while he waited for 
the promise that he should become a fath- 
er and the progenitor of a great nation, and that 
in his seed all the families of the earth should be 
blessed. When this promise was first given he had 
just been commanded to go to a land which God 
should show him. He was then seventy-five years 
of age, but still childless. 

Abraham, doubtless, expected that the promised 
heir would soon be given ; but God, to whom years 
are as nothing, kept him waiting, waiting, until his 
faith began to stagger, and he despondingly ex- 
claimed : " Lord God, what wilt Thou give me, see- 
ing I go childless, and the steward of my house is 
this Eliezer of Damascus?" Once more the prom- 
ise of an innumerable posterity is given, and that 
it should come, not through his steward, but be 
his own offspring. So matters rested for a while 
longer. 

At the end of ten years, Sarah, despairing of ever 
becoming a mother, persuaded Abraham to take 
Hagar, her Egyptian handmaid, to be a second 
wife, hoping in that way to reach the promised 
blessing. It will not do to apply our Christian eth- 
ics to a transaction which took place at that age of 

(13) 



14 GATHERED SHEAVES. 

the world. It was, it is true, a case of doing evil 
that good might come. On her part it was an act 
of heroic self-abnegation ; and the most that can 
be said against it is, that it showed evidence of a 
lack of faith ; for it was taking God's work out of 
His hands and undertaking to manage it them- 
selves. It is true that He had not yet said: "Sarah 
shall have a son." That is all that can be said in 
the way of mitigation or apology. 

As the result of staggering faith, and of this purely 
human arrangement, Ishmael was born. Of his 
personal history we know very little ; yet he was 
one of the most remarkable men the world ever 
saw — not as an individual man, however, but as 
the progenitor of a race as numerous, as marked, 
and as enduring as that which sprang from Isaac 
and Jacob. 

While the boy was still a member of his father's 
family, and about fourteen years of age, the Lord 
again talked with Abraham, and promised another 
son by Sarah, his true and lawful wife. But at this 
time Abraham was ninety-nine years old, and Sarah 
ninety. Again the faith of Abraham staggered ; 
for he supposed that at their time of life such a 
thing was impossible. Then it was that he offered 
up the agonizing prayer, " O that Ishmael might 
live before thee ! " The Lord then replied that 
Sarah his wife should have a son indeed, and that 
He should call his name Isaac, and that with him 
would He establish an everlasting covenant, and 
with his seed after him. In this covenant the 
Messiah is embraced. 

But the prayer of the patriarch for the son of the 



THE BLESSING OF ISHMAEL. 1 5 

bondwoman was heard and answered. " As for Ish- 
mael I have heard thee," said God. " Behold, I 
have blessed him and will make him fruitful, and 
will multiply him exceedingly." And again, at an- 
other time He said, " In Isaac shall thy seed be 
called ; and also of the son of the bondwoman will 
I make a nation, because he is thy seed." And be- 
fore his birth, while his mother was for a short time 
a fugitive, driven forth by her mistress Sarah for 
insolence, the Lord said to her, " Behold, thou art 
with child and shalt bear a son, and shalt call his 
name Ishmael, because the Lord hath heard thy 
affliction. And he will be a wild man. His hand 
will be against every man, and every man's hand 
against him ; and he shall dwell in the presence of 
all his brethren." 

Thus we see that from Abraham sprang the only 
two well-defined, imperishable races the world ever 
saw — the Israelites, or Jews, and the Arabs. The 
first, as we all know, are a distinct, strongly marked 
race, although scattered abroad among all nations ; 
the others still dwelling to this day in the presence 
of all their brethren of the human race — wild men, 
many of them rovers, some of them robbers ; their 
hand still against every man, and every man's hand 
against them. There they have been through more 
than thirty-five centuries. Empires and dynasties 
have risen and fallen in their presence ; but there 
they abide with about as much vitality as ever. 
Their language is rich and copious. Even our own 
noble tongue has been greatly enriched by what 
has been drawn from the Arabic. Science, especial- 
ly that of numbers, owes much of its wealth to the 



1 6 GATHERED SHEAVES. 

Arabs. To them the world is indebted for those 
absolutely perfect characters, the numerals, i, 2, 
3, 4, etc., capable of those easy and endless combi- 
nations with which we are so familiar, and which 
are equally adapted to every language. 

Politically the Arabs never had a place among 
the great nationalities of the earth. They have 
dwelt as a distinct people in the presence of their 
brethren, but were not of them. They have shed 
a prodigious influence upon mankind, but were 
hardly at all influenced in return. They have been 
originators, but not copyists. They are a great 
people ; but we can hardly say that they have ever 
been a nation. Ishmael has for thirty-five hundred 
years been a wild man ; yet in some directions very 
highly civilized. 

Rich and copious as is the Arabic language, no 
great historian, philosopher, poet, or dramatist 
ever used it, and in it is found no product of deep 
thought or of tempered imagination. Even its 
lyrics, lacking the grand ideas of the Hebrew poets, 
are tame and spiritless, and mere plays of luxurious 
fancy. That well-known series of extravagant ro- 
mances, " The Arabian Nights," is the sole classic 
in that language, if we except the Koran of Mo- 
hammed, the thoughts of which are drawn largely 
from the Old and New Testaments. 

The line of Isaac led to Christ ; that of Ishmael 
to Mohammed. The kingdom of the first was not 
of this world. He sternly forbade the use of the 
sword. That of the second was altogether of this 
world, and the sword was the chief, almost the only 
instrument used to propagate his faith. " I, if I be 



THE BLESSING OF ISHMAEL. 1 7 

lifted up," said Jesus, " will draw all men unto me." 
Mohammed took the sword and set out upon the 
cruel mission of driving all men to embrace his doc- 
trines. " They that take the sword shall perish 
with the sword," said He who has all power in 
heaven and on earth ; and in that divine fiat we 
may read the inevitable doom of Islamism. 

Was Mohammed a blessing or a curse to the 
world, all things considered ? This is a problem 
upon which much might be said on both sides. At 
the time when he proclaimed the Semitic doctrine 
of the unity of God, A.D. 622, Christianity in the 
East had become too corrupt and therefore too 
weak to resist the abominations of Polytheism 
which generally prevailed in those nations and 
tribes upon which the sword of that extraordinary 
man imposed a purer and better faith, even though 
it had no saving power unto eternal life. As a re- 
former he may be classed among benefactors ; but 
as a religious teacher he was merely a false prophet, 
and bound men faster in spiritual bondage than any 
other the world ever saw. Still he lifted the peo- 
ple whom he subdued to a higher plane of earthly 
life, by giving them higher and purer ideas of the 
Deity. Even the Christian churches of that day in 
the East, with their images, pictures, saints, Mari- 
olatry, and its mummery and dead forms, fell below 
Mohammed and his sublime teachings of Allah. 
On the other hand, Islamism has through twelve 
centuries stood as the greatest menace to Christian- 
ity and the most formidable bar to its progress — a 
bar which no power short of that of the Holy Spirit 
is able to remove. 



1 8 GATHERED SHEAVES. 

But there are now signs that a better day is 
dawning upon the lands of Ishmael, and that the 
Crescent is beginning to pale before the superior 
rays of the Sun of Righteousness. The news of 
the progress of a pure Christian faith in the lands 
where the Arabic tongue is the vernacular of the 
people, under the gentle teaching of Christian mis- 
sionaries, and under the powerful influence of evan- 
gelical presses, is very cheering indeed ; and to us 
it is all the more gratifying to know that the most 
efficient of these missionaries are Americans. " It 
is a land," says a late able writer, " where there is 
much intellectual light, and where rapid progress is 
being made in literary and scientific culture. To 
borrow a commonplace expression, there is what 
might be called an intellectual ' boom ' in Syria at 
the present time. Schools are called for on every 
side. Villages send the most imposing official 
delegations they can muster to visit the mission- 
aries and ask for a Protestant teacher and educa- 
tional advantages for their children." 




THE BLESSING OF JOSEPH. 

j|F Jacob's twelve sons Reuben was the first- 
born, and would, but for the great fault of 
his life, have inherited the first and great- 
est blessing. But the birthright did not become 
void because Reuben forfeited it, as we learn from 
I Chron. v. I, 2, where the case is thus stated in a 
parenthesis : " For he (Reuben) was the first-born ; 
but forasmuch as he defiled his father's bed, his 
birthright was given unto the sons of Joseph, the 
son of Israel ; and the genealogy is not to be 
reckoned after the birthright. For Judah pre- 
vailed above his brethren, and of him came the 
Chief Ruler (or Prince) ; but the birthright was 
Joseph's." The prime meaning of the Chief Ruler 
(or Prince) who should come of Judah is doubtless 
Christ, or the Messiah, although David and his 
royal successors are included. "Judah" — ex- 
claimed the dying patriarch, as he called his sons 
in the order of their ages to receive his prophetic 
blessing — " Judah, thou art he whom thy brethren 
shall praise ; thy hand shall be in the neck of thine 
enemies ; thy father's children shall bow down 
before thee. Judah is a lion's whelp : from the 
prey, my son, thou art gone up. He stooped 
clown, he couched as a lion, and as an old lion ; 
who shall rouse him up? The sceptre shall not 

(19) 



20 GATHERED SHEAVES. 

depart from Judah, nor a lawgiver from between 
his feet, until Shiloh come, and unto him shall the 
gathering of the people be." 

Here we see wherein Judah prevailed above his 
brethren, because of him came the Chief Ruler — 
Christ — whom the patriarch calls Shiloh. But still 
" the birthright was Joseph's." 

In the remarkable scene between Jacob and 
Joseph, when the latter brought his two little boys, 
Manasseh and Ephraim, to receive their grand- 
father's blessing before he departed, we have a 
prediction of the coming greatness of the family or 
tribe of Joseph which harmonizes perfectly with 
the blessings afterward pronounced upon him by 
both Jacob and Moses. Let us quote a few words 
(Gen. xlviii. 15-T9): "And he blessed Joseph and 
said, God, before whom my fathers Abraham and 
Isaac did walk, the God which fed me all my life 
long unto this day, the Angel which redeemed me 
from all evil, bless the lads; and let my name be 
named on them, and the name of my fathers 
Abraham and Isaac, and let them grow into a mul- 
titude in the midst of the earth. And when Joseph 
saw that his father laid his right hand upon the 
head of Ephraim, it displeased him [or, as the 
margin reads, it was evil in his eyes] ; and he held 
up his father's hand to remove it from Ephraim's 
head unto Manasseh's head. And Joseph said 
unto his father, Not so, my father ; for this is the 
first-born ; put thy right hand upon his head. And 
his father refused, and said, I know it, my son, I know 
it : he also shall become a people, and he shall be 
great ; but truly his younger brother shall be 



THE BLESSING OF JOSEPH. 21 

greater than he, and his seed shall become a mul- 
titude of nations." 

Let us now turn to the peculiar and illimitable 
blessings pronounced upon Joseph by the dying 
Jacob, and also by Moses — the one the father, the 
other the leader of the chosen people : " And Jacob 
called unto his sons and said, Gather yourselves 
together that I may tell you that which shall befall 
you in the last days. Gather yourselves together 
and hear, ye sons of Jacob, and hearken unto Israel 
your father " (Gen. xlix. I, 2). He then goes on in 
the loftiest poetic strain, first speaking of Reuben, 
Simeon, and Levi in terms more like maledictions 
than blessings. Judah, the fourth in order, is then 
blessed in the grand and lofty terms already quoted. 
The next six in order are briefly passed over. 
Joseph, the eleventh, then comes in, and nothing 
can be in stronger contrast than his blessing and 
those of his elder brethren, except that of Judah. 
Let us quote it in full : " Joseph is a fruitful bough, 
even a fruitful bough by a well, whose branches run 
over the wall. The archers have sorely grieved 
him, and shot at him, and hated him ; but his bow 
abode in strength, and the arms of his hands were 
made strong by the hands of the mighty God of 
Jacob [from thence is the Shepherd, the Stone of 
Israel] ; even by the God of thy father, who shall 
help thee, and by the Almighty, who shall bless 
thee with blessings of heaven above, blessings of 
the deep that lieth under, blessings of the breasts 
and of the womb : the blessings of thy father have 
prevailed above the blessings of my progenitors, 
unto the utmost bound of the everlasting hills : 



22 GATHERED SHEAVES. 

they shall be on the head of Joseph, and on the 
crown of the head of him that was separate from 
his brethren." 

Before offering any remarks upon this wonderful 
outburst of prophetic poetry from the lips of a 
dying man, let us quote the equally grand words of 
Moses when he blessed the children of Israel by 
their tribes before he left them to go up the moun- 
tain to die. We shall quote only what he said of 
Joseph (Deut. xxxiii. 13-17): " And of Joseph he 
said, Blessed of the Lord be his land, for the pre- 
cious things of heaven, for the dew, and for the 
deep that couches beneath, and for the precious 
fruits brought forth by the sun, and for the pre- 
cious things put forth by the moon, and for the chief 
things of the ancient mountains, and for the pre- 
cious things of the lasting hills, and for the precious 
things of the earth and the fulness thereof, and for 
the good-will of Him that dwelt in the bush ; let 
the blessing come upon the head of Joseph, and 
upon the top of the head of him that was separated 
from his brethren. His glory is like the firstling of 
his bullock, and his horns are like the horns of 
unicorns : with them shall he push the people to- 
gether to the ends of the earth : and they are the 
ten thousands of Ephraim, and they are the thou- 
sands of Manasseh." 

In the reign of Rehoboam, the son of Solomon, 
Israel was divided into two separate kingdoms 
known afterward by the terms Israel and Judah. 
Ten tribes revolted against the house of David, 
leaving only Judah and Benjamin. The half tribes 
of Ephraim and Manasseh (the house of Joseph) 



THE BLESSING OF JOSEPH. 23 

revolted with the others on that occasion, and all 
their subsequent history, extending through a 
period of about two hundred and fifty years, is one 
■ of idolatry, wickedness, oppression, turmoil, trouble, 
retrogression, and national decay, until finally they 
were carried away into perpetual captivity by Shal- 
maneser, king of Assyria, and have ever since 
been spoken of as " the lost tribes." A scattered 
remnant was left, who, combined with the heathen 
colonists sent in by the king of Assyria, constituted 
the people of Samaria, so often spoken of in the 
New Testament. 

Where, then, are we to look for the fulfilment of 
the magnificent predictions of Jacob and Moses of 
the greatness and prosperity of Joseph ? To apply 
such terms to that people during their compara- 
tively short and troublous sojourn in Palestine is 
impossible. Moreover, the blessings pronounced by 
Jacob burst away beyond anything that had been 
promised to Abraham and Isaac, and are different 
in kind. Hence says he, "The blessings of thy 
father have prevailed above the blessings of my 
progenitors unto the utmost bounds of the everlast- 
ing hills." The blessing of Judah was better than 
that of Joseph, because it included the Shiloh, the 
Christ ; that of Joseph, on the other hand, seems 
to be all made up of earthly blessings — numbers, 
power, prosperity. " His horns [says Moses, and 
horns are the emblems of power] are like the 
horns of unicorns ; with them shall he push the 
people together to the ends of the earth." Joseph, 
when he was an individual man, was carried away 
into captivity, and in that exile, while separate 



24 GATHERED SHEAVES. 

from his brethren, he became great in power; and 
from the tenor of the remarkable prophecies under 
consideration, he, in his descendants, may again be- 
come great ; although no man can even guess where 
those descendants are, or who they are. But that 
a people, of whom inspiration would speak as those 
two great men spoke, should pine away and perish 
• from the earth, leaving no trace, is altogether im- 
probable. Paul assures us that " all Israel shall be 
saved " — not the Jews only, but all Israel — and it is 
a pleasant thought that, at the right time, the Lord 
will bring out His " hidden ones "; for He " knoweth 
them that are His." 

I shall indulge in no speculations as to where 
they are, or who they are — possibly they them- 
selves do not know ; but if they are still in exist- 
ence, they will at the proper time trace out their 
ancestry. Some great and numerous people may 
ere long astonish the world, as the ruler of Egypt 
astonished his brethren three thousand years ago, 
by the announcement, " I am Joseph ! " 



GOD'S DELIGHT IN HIS PEOPLE. 

|WICE, in his first epistle, John declares 
in the most emphatic terms that " God is 
love." Jesus says, " God so loved the 
world that He gave His only begotten Son, that 
whosoever believeth in Him should not perish, but 
have everlasting life." Then He adds, " For God 
sent not His Son into the world to judge the world ; 
but that the world should be saved through Him." 
(In this last verse I quote the revised version.) In 
these great sayings the benevolence, the goodness, 
the mercy, the kindness, the pity and the compas- 
sion of our Heavenly Father are set before us in 
terms beyond which human language can not go. 
He gave the richest gift which it was in His power 
to give for the redemption of a world of sinners. 
Paul's mind, after writing to his Corinthian converts 
about their gifts to himself and other saints, seems 
to have suddenly darted up to the infinite generos- 
ity of God, and he concludes that particular sub- 
ject with the sublime and rapturous exclamation, 
" Thanks be to God for His unspeakable gift ! " 

So far we have been considering the love of God as 
it is manifested in the attributes of His nature above 
enumerated, and which showers benefits and blessings 
upon His poor fallen creature man, and fills his 
heart with love and joy and peace and gratitude, 
as we have just seen that it did in the case of Paul. 
But how is the emotional nature of God Himself 

(25) 



26 GATHERED SHEAVES. 

affected by the relation to Himself into which re- 
deeming grace brings the ransomed sinner? Does 
he derive any happiness from it ? No one who has 
proper reverence would dare to answer such a ques- 
tion affirmatively as a result of his own reasoning ; 
but it has pleased God to answer it in His Word. 
Our great Redeemer, speaking through a prophet 
said, " My delights were with the sons of men." 
Delights is one of the strongest words that we can 
use to express the most lively joy. When an an- 
gel came to Daniel in answer to his supplication, 
his first salutation was, " O Daniel, a man greatly 
beloved ! " Then we read of " that disciple whom 
Jesus loved." Again, Jesus says, " Behold, I stand 
at the door and knock; if any man hear my voice 
and open the door, I will come in to him, and sup 
with him and he with me," thus expressing a strong 
desire for loving, mutual intercourse with him who 
opens the door. This accords with that wonderful 
prophetic utterance — already quoted — " My de- 
lights were with the sons of men." These Scrip- 
tures express far more than mere love of benevo- 
lence. It is even more than love of complacency. 
The redeemed sinner, washed in the blood of the 
Lamb, becomes as holy, as pure, as good, and as 
lovely, in his finite measure, as is the Saviour Him- 
self, and is thenceforth an object of great joy to 
God Himself. The relation which will subsist 
eternally between them will be one of mutual joy, 
infinite endearment, reciprocal love. The loves of 
earth, various and beautiful as they are, are but 
faint shadows of this all-perfect relationship. 

I lave T here spoken with unwarranted boldness? 



god's delight in his people. 27 

Some humble, trembling, self-depreciating reader 
may think so ; and if we stood in our own native 
character, righteousness, and merits, he would be 
right. But if, through faith, we become one with 
Christ, and by receiving Him become children of 
God, there is no limit to our deservings, no bounds 
to the complacent love to which we may without 
presumption lay claim. Yet still, to Him who 
bought us with His blood, be all the glory. 

But to show that the foregoing is not extrava- 
gant, I need only quote one verse from Zephaniah 
iii. 17, in which God Himself tells what joy — deep, 
heart-felt, emotional joy — He has in His people, 
His Zion, His redeemed ones. Hear what He says : 
" The Lord thy God in the midst of thee is mighty; 
He will save, He will rejoice over thee with joy; 
He will rest in His love, He will joy over thee 
with singing." It is a great thing that the believer 
can be joyful in God, and entertain a firm hope of 
soon seeing his Redeemer face to face ; but that the 
Lord his God should be passionately joyful in him 
is what no one would have dared to hope for, had 
not God Himself said it. This is not the language 
of an infinitely great being, dwelling far above all 
things in inherent blessedness and infinite repose; 
but of a loving parent enjoying the society of his 
own beloved children, whom his loving-kindness has 
made very happy, and who have been made worthy 
of his love by the impartation of his grace and the 
imputation of their Saviour's righteousness. 

It may be that there are some who will argue 
that this amazing message was sent through Zepha- 
niah to God's ancient chosen people, and that it 



28 GATHERED SHEAVES. 

ought not to be applied to Gentile believers the 
world over. All the answer I shall offer to that is 
a short quotation from Galatians iii. 26-29, where 
Paul writes : " For ye are all the children of God 
by faith in Christ Jesus. For as many of you as have 
been baptized into Christ have put on Christ. 
There is neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither 
bond nor free, there is neither male nor female ; for 
ye are all one in Christ Jesus ; and if ye be Christ's, 
then are ye Abraham's seed, and heirs according to 
the promise." Let this suffice on that point. 

If, in this brief article, I have succeeded in lifting 
up any weak and timid soul to something like a re- 
alizing sense of the love of God, and of the place in 
God's heart which he occupies through the abound- 
ing grace bestowed upon him, notwithstanding his 
deeply-felt infirmities and sins, my labor has not 
been in vain. Still, let the admonition of the apos- 
tle be ever kept in mind — " He that glorieth let 
him glory in the Lord." 




THE RECHABITES 

(ILLUSION is often made by the advocates 
of total abstinence from all intoxicants to 
the Rechabites, who were the first society 
or people who acted fully up to that safe and 
wholesome principle of which history gives us any 
account. In the thirty-fifth chapter of Jeremiah we 
have the fullest account of their manner of life and 
of their customs ; although that is not the only 
place in the Bible where mention is made of them. 
In 2 Kings x. 15, we find the first mention of the 
name of Rechab, where it is narrated that Jonadab, 
the son of Rechab, met Jehu, the furious king of 
Israel, who was anointed for the express purpose of 
cutting off the whole house of Ahab and the priests 
of Baal. When that bloody commission was nearly 
finished, Jehu met Jonadab in a friendly manner, 
and took him up in his chariot, saying : " Come 
with me and see my zeal for the Lord." He was 
then on his way to Samaria to put all the priests of 
Baal to the sword. In 2 Samuel mention is made of a 
man named Jonadab ; but that was a different man. 
This family or tribe of Rechabites were not 
Israelites, but a branch of the Kenites. That they 
were believers in and worshippers of Israel's God, we 
may safely infer from the words and conduct of 
Jehu on the occasion just mentioned. They seem 
to have lived apart from the Israelites as a close 
community, having their own peculiar usages. 

(29) 



30 GATHERED SHEAVES. 

What these customs were is clearly set forth in 
the thirty-fifth chapter of Jkremiah, where the proph- 
et, under the divine command, severely tested 
the abstemious principles of this simple and peace- 
ful community of separatists. Let us quote: 

" The word which came unto Jeremiah from the Lord in 
the days of Jehoiakim, the son of Josiah, king of Judah, say- 
ing : ' Go unto the house of the Rechabites and speak unto 
them, and bring them into the house of the Lord, into one 
of the chambers, and give them wine to drink.' " 

When Jehu met Jonadab this little community 
lived not far from Samaria; now they are at Jeru- 
salem. According to the received chronology that 
meeting was 884 years before Christ. The date of 
this temptation to drink wine was in the year 589, 
which shows that for at least 295 years these people 
had strictly obeyed the command of their great 
ancestor Jonadab, the son of Rechab. 

" Then," continues the prophet, " I took Jaazaniah, the 
son of Habaziniah, and his brethren, and all his sons, and 
the whole house of the Rechabites, and I brought them 
into the house of the Lord, into the chamber of the sons 
of Hanan, the son of Igdaliah, a man of God, which was by 
the chamber of the princes, which was above the chamber 
of Maaseiah, the son of Shallum, the keeper of the door." 

See how careful the prophet is to tell us into 
what a remote and secluded place he took them, 
and how far removed from the more sacred and 
consecrated portions of the edifice. 

" And I set before the sons of the house of the Recha- 
bites pots full of wine, and cups, and I said unto them : 
Drink ye wine.' But they said : ' We will drink no wine ; 
for Jonadab, the son of Rechab, our father, commanded us, 



THE RECHABITES. 3 1 

saying, " Ye shall drink no wine, neither ye nor your sons 
forever; neither shall ye build houses, nor sow seed, nor 
plant vineyards, nor have any ; but all your days shall ye 
dwell in tents ; that ye may live many days in the land 
where ye be strangers." Thus have we obeyed the voice of 
Jonadab, the son of Rechab, our father, in all that he hath 
charged us, to drink no wine all our days, we, our wives, 
our sons, nor our daughters ; nor to build houses for us to 
dwell in ; neither have we vineyard, nor field, nor seed ; 
but we have dwelt in tents, and have obeyed, and done 
according to all that Jonadab, our father, commanded us.' " 

They then go on to state that owing to the 
invasion of the land by Nebuchadnezzar, they had 
left their former residence and come to Jerusalem 
as a place of refuge. After holding up the obedi- 
ence of the Rechabites to the rebellious Jews as an 
example, the Lord spoke through the prophet 
directly to the Rechabites: "Thus saith the Lord 
of hosts, the God of Israel, because ye have obeyed 
the commandment of Jonadab, your father, and 
kept his precepts, and done according to all that 
he hath commanded you ; therefore, thus saith the 
Lord of hosts, the God of Israel, Jonadab, the son 
of Rechab, shall not want a man to stand before 
me forever." 

These strange, exclusive, peculiar, but peaceful 
and excellent people come up before us only twice 
in the sacred narrative. Their history is as mysteri- 
ous as that of Melchizedec, and like him they seem 
to have clung to the faith of the earliest worshippers 
of the most high God, amid surrounding idolatry, 
and were by him preserved in peace and guarded 
from harm through all the turbulent history of 
Israel and Judah ; and they depart from our ken 



32 GATHERED SHEAVES. 

with the blessing of the Lord of hosts resting upon 
them. Their simple habits of life are so well de- 
scribed in the passage just quoted that nothing 
more need be added. For what were they blessed ? 
Was it for their abstemious habits? Partly so — for 
these habits were wise and good — but more for 
their filial obedience. The people of Israel and 
Judah were in almost perpetual rebellion against 
their Father in heaven ; while these simple-hearted 
Rechabites lived in strict obedience to the com- 
mandment of Jonadab, their father, who had mold- 
ered to dust centuries before. 

But whence came they? I know not that I could 
trace their origin in the Bible ; but Dr. F. W. 
Krummacher, of Germany, in his " Last Days of 
Elisha," has a plausible and pleasant theory that 
the. Kenites were the descendants of Abraham by 
Keturah, the wife he took after the death of Sarah. 
She had several sons, one of whom was named 
Midian. These sons he sent away with gifts ; but 
Isaac was his heir and successor. When Moses 
fled from Egypt he wandered off to the land of 
Midian, a district in Arabia, east of Horeb, which 
was settled probably by the son of Abraham and 
Keturah who bore that name. It was here that the 
romantic incident at the well, where the daughters 
of Jethro were watering their flocks, happened. 
Seeing some rude fellows driving these defenceless 
girls away from the well and taking possession of it 
themselves, Moses, like a true knight, drove them 
away and himself drew water for the flock. What 
Dr. Krummacher says of this incident and what 
follows, I shall quote at some length ; and whether 



THE RECHABITES. 33 

the reader shall regard it as fact or fancy, or a 
mingling of both, he will find it pleasant reading. 
He says : 

" Most agreeably surprised by the unexpected assistance 
of the benevolent stranger, the maidens hasten back to 
their encampment, and the first person they meet in its 
vicinity is their grandfather Reguel, who expresses his 
astonishment at seeing them return so early. They do not 
leave him long in suspense about the cause of it, and cir- 
cumstantially relate the terror they were in when an 
Egyptian man protected them against the rudeness of the 
shepherds, drew water for them, and with his own hand 
watered their flocks. The old man, on hearing this, was 
grieved that, forgetting the sacred duties of hospitality, 
they had suffered the obliging individual to pursue his 
way, instead of inviting him to their father's tents ; and 
after having seriously reproved his granddaughters, he 
sent them back, saying, ' Go and look for the man, and if 
you find him, urge him to come and eat bread with us.' 
The damsels yield a willing obedience, and have not pene- 
trated far into the wilderness before they are again met by 
the friendly stranger, who is easily induced to accept their 
invitation. On their return to the tents with their new 
guest, they meet with their father, Jethro, and having also 
informed him how nobly and boldly the stranger had taken 
their part, the latter is cordially welcomed by the worthy 
people, and urged to continue in their quiet social circle as 
long as he pleases. How gladly is the invitation accepted 
by the stranger, who had never imagined that in this 
remote part of the desert he should have met with such a 
reception ; for it is not long ere, to his great and joyful sur- 
prise, he ascertains that he is not only among kind and 
sociable people, but that he has entered the circle of those 
who are companions in the faith and partakers of the same 
spirit. The little tribe know and worship the true God. 
Jethro is even a priest of God, and a preacher of his name. 
Moses, who had never had an idea of a church of God out 
3 



34 GATHERED SHEAVES. 

of Israel, feels greatly surprised, having believed that the 
wilderness was inhabited solely by savage idolaters ; but 
now sees himself surrounded by brethren in the Lord, and 
feels himself under the influence of a divine life and a 
sanctified love. His satisfaction is great ; and that of the 
amiable family, after a mutual communication of their in- 
most thoughts, not less so. Their guest naturally wishes 
to know in what way divine truth had reached them ; and 
learns that this favored tribe are descendants of Midian, 
the son of Abraham and Keturah. He hears that a rich 
vein of divine manifestation had been handed down to 
them by their forefathers,, although it was scarcely any 
longer visible amongst the majority of the people from the 
mass of heathenish error which had attracted itself to it. 
In one family, however, that of the Kenites, it had been 
preserved pure and unmingled ; and to this family — which 
must not be confounded with the Canaanitish Kenites — 
they were privileged to belong:" 

There, allied to that family, Moses spent forty 
years of his life. Zipporah, one of Jethro's daugh- 
ters, became his wife early in his sojourn in Midian. 
He lived the life of a shepherd, and was caring for 
his flock on the slopes of Horeb when the Lord 
called him at the burning bush to go back to Egypt 
and emancipate his brethren from cruel bondage 
and lead them to the promised land. After all this 
had been accomplished, and the pilgrim host had 
passed the Red Sea and Sinai and resumed their 
march toward the desert east of Horeb, Jethro, 
accompanied by the wife and children of Moses, 
visited the camp of Israel. He is deeply affected 
and exclaimed : " Blessed be the Lord who hath 
delivered you out of the hands of the Egyptians 
and out of the hand of Pharaoh ! Now I know 
that the Lord is greater than all gods ; for in the 



THE RECHABTTES. 35 

thing wherein they dealt proudly He was above 
them." He then took a burnt-offering and sacri- 
fices and offered them in thankful adoration to the 
Lord. By this we are able to judge of the char- 
acter of the man and of his people. No wonder 
that Moses was anxious to take him along to the 
promised land. " We are journeying," said he, " to 
the place of which the Lord said, I will give it you ; 
come thou with us and we will do thee good ; for 
the Lord hath spoken good concerning Israel." Of 
this Dr. Krummacher says: "Jethro himself re- 
turned ; but Jethro's house, his family, his rela- 
tives, and others of the tribe of the Kenites, 
believers like himself in the only true God, for- 
sook their native land and joined the wandering 
train of the chosen race, never to leave it again." 

Of the historical accuracy of this statement my 
readers are as competent to judge as I am, and 
many much more so. That the Kenites were 
closely allied to Israel, and that there never was 
any hostility between them, is clear; but that they 
never departed from the worship of the true God, 
as Dr. Krummacher contends, may be true, but it 
is not proven. 

But at the time of Israel's deepest declension 
there arose an extraordinary man, known to us by 
the name of Jonadab, the son of Rechab. Whether 
Rechab was his immediate progenitor, or a more 
remote ancestor, we know not. In 2 Samuel a 
man named Rechab is mentioned who was put to 
death by David for a barbarous act, but it is not 
probable that he was the ancestor of Jonadab. Be 
that as it may, it is certain that a man named 



36 GATHERED SHEAVES. 

Rechab gave his name to a branch or offshoot of 
the Kenite tribe, and that Jonadab instituted cer- 
tain peculiar customs and modes of life which made 
them as strongly marked separatists as any found 
in the history of the world ; and we have seen how 
faithfully they adhered to his rules through three 
centuries, and for so doing they received an em- 
phatic divine benediction. 

It is a pleasant thought that this strange family, 
whom God says shall not want a man to stand 
before Him forever, are the direct descendants of 
Abraham. The Arabs from Ishmael, the Israelites 
from Isaac, and the Kenites, or at least the Recha- 
bites, from Midian, the son of Abraham by Keturah, 
are perpetual and indestructible in their genera- 
tions. The first two are as numerous and as full 
of vitality to-day as they ever were ; and if we may 
accept as truth the following, which is found on 
page 109 of the volume from which I have already 
quoted, Jonadab, the son of Rechab, does not want 
a man to stand before the Lord this day : 

" Not a long time ago a missionary is said to have found 
them out in the heart of Asia, and has given the following 
account of the circumstance. One day he was met in the 
depths of a distant wilderness by a splendidly attired horse- 
man, arrayed and armed after the Arabian manner, of 
martial bearing, who, on the missionary inquiring who he 
was, hastily and haughtily replied in a powerful voice, ' A 
son of Rechab!' The missionary on this presented him 
with an Arabic Bible, printed parallel with the Hebrew 
text ; on which the son of the desert turned to the proph- 
ecy of Jeremiah, and read in Hebrew the thirty-fifth 
chapter, which treated of his order. Being further inter- 
rogated by the stranger as to his abode, and if there were 
many of his tribe, he invited him to visit them in their 



THE RECHABTTES. 37 

tents which were near at hand, and to bring him as many- 
Bibles as he could spare. He then turned his horse about, 
gave him the spurs, and disappeared in the wide and path- 
less desert. 

" The missionary followed the direction which the son 
of Rechab had taken, and met, not far from Mecca, with 
the tribe which had been indicated to him. He found 
them dwelling in tents as of old, and spread over three 
fruitful and verdant districts. Their number amounted to 
several thousands. They strictly adhered to Jonadab's 
rules and to their forefathers' manner of life; built no 
houses, drank no wine, professed to belong, as far as they 
understood it, to the Jewish persuasion, and possessed a 
large portion of the Old Testament as the standard of their 
faith. They fought for their laws against Mohammed 
sword in hand, and, although conquered, were not sub- 
dued. They continued true to their creed and their tradi- 
tions. The other Asiatic Jews think highly of them, and 
believe that whenever they shall return to the promised 
land the Rechabites will act an important part and join 
them as valiant confederates." 

Thus we see that the promise of the Lord of 
hosts through Jeremiah more than 2,500 years ago, 
that " Jonadab, the son of Rechab, shall not want a 
man to stand before me forever," still holds good. 
What stronger proof could there be of the truth of 
the Holy Scriptures than the continued existence 
of this little tribe not far from the locality of their 
earliest ancestor, Midian, the son of Abraham, still 
adhering to the abstemious rule which Jonadab 
gave to his branch of the tribe, his family, in the 
dark days when the idolatrous house of Ahab ruled 
over Israel ? And where can we find a stronger 
argument that the principle of total abstinence 
from intoxicating drink has the divine approbation 
and blessing? 



38 GATHERED SHEAVES. 

I might run a parallel between this ancient sect 
and the several peculiar, abstemious, peaceful, and 
exclusive sects of Christendom, such as the Quakers, 
Mennonites, Dunkers, and others which originated 
in the Protestant Church since the Reformation, 
and the Jansenists of France in the Catholic Church ; 
but I leave that to the reader, as this article is long 
enough. 




THE TWENTY-THIRD PSALM. 

JjAVID, while a boy in his father's home, 
kept a flock of sheep on the hills and vales 
near Bethlehem ; probably on the east side, 
and not far from the rugged and sterile region 
which stretches from the western shore of the Dead 
Sea toward Bethlehem. I say this because David 
himself tells us that a lion and a bear attacked his 
flock, and that he followed both those predatory 
animals and slew them. He told King Saul of 
these exploits in order to convince him that he was 
able to encounter and slay the giant of Philistia 
who at that moment was defying the armies of 
Israel. Now, it is not likely that lions and bears 
ever ventured to the western or northern side of 
Bethlehem ; hence in imagination I locate David's 
sheep pasture to the eastward of the town, a com- 
paratively sterile and uninhabited region to this 
day. 

Thus David was a shepherd, faithful, watchful, 
and courageous. He was there at his lonely post 
when Samuel the prophet went by divine direction 
to anoint one of the sons of Jesse to be king over 
Israel in the place of the rejected Saul, he not yet 
knowing which of them the Lord had chosen. 
Seven of the sons of Jesse were caused to pass be- 
fore the prophet, not one of whom was the Lord's 
choice. Then Samuel said unto Jesse, "Are here 
all thy children ? " To which Jesse answered, 

(39) 



40 GATHERED SHEAVES. 

" There remaineth yet the youngest, and, behold, 
he keepeth the sheep." He was sent for at once, 
and soon came in. " Now he was ruddy," says the 
sacred historian, " and withal of a beautiful coun- 
tenance, and goodly to look to. And the Lord 
said, Arise, anoint him, for this is he." 

This was some time before he slew Goliath of 
Gath. But this ceremony of anointing did not 
change his humble occupation of a shepherd, for 
Samuel did not tell either Jesse or his sons what 
its significance was. Some time after this the 
Philistines invaded the land. The armies of Israel 
were drawn together to defend it, and the three 
elder sons of Jesse were soldiers in that army. 

Jesse sent David to the army to inquire after the 
welfare of his brethren and to take some supplies 
to them, just as Jacob, long before, had sent Joseph 
on a similar errand. Eliab, the elder, as soon as he 
discovered that David was taking some interest in 
the contest, treated him with haughty scorn and 
contempt, saying, "Why earnest thou down hither? 
and with whom hast thou left those few sheep in 
the wilderness? I know thy pride and the naughti- 
ness of thine heart ; for thou art come down that 
thou mightest see the battle." It is most probable 
that Eliab's heart was full of envy because Samuel 
had anointed David after rejecting him and his 
other brethren. At all events we learn from the 
words of the vain and ill-natured man that David 
was still nothing but a shepherd, and that he was 
taking care of a few sheep in the wilderness. At 
this time David was both a poet and a musician, 
for prior to this visit to the camp he had played the 



THE TWENTY-THIRD PSALM. 41 

harp before Saul to drive away the evil spirit which 
troubled him. 

I think it was about this time, whether before or 
after his anointing it matters not, that he composed 
that inimitable lyric of which I propose to speak, 
the Twenty-third Psalm. In it he spoke as he was 
moved by the Holy Ghost. Like all other prophets 
he spoke better than he himself was aware of ; and 
his words have warmed, invigorated, and com- 
forted the hearts of more than fifty generations, 
and are as fresh to-day, and as applicable to the 
believing heart as they were when first sung by 
their author in that solitary wilderness where he 
watched over his flock. Let us imagine him seated 
on a little elevation overlooking a valley through 
which " quiet waters " flowed. He can see all his 
sheep. Some are feeding, some lying down, near 
the still water. All is safe, all is peace, all is quiet 
enjoyment. / am the shepherd of these sheep ; 
but who is my Shepherd ? " Jehovah is my Shep- 
herd, " as I am the shepherd of these poor, defence- 
less, but happy animals. This is the grand opening 
proposition, and upon it hangs all that follows. 
" The Lord is my Shepherd "; therefore " I shall 
not want." He then goes on to enumerate some 
of the leading benefits which his divine Shepherd 
is bestowing upon him in strains of such joy and 
confident assurance that there is nothing to com- 
plain of, nothing more to ask for. 

It is pleasant to think that this brief Psalm of 
triumph, this outburst of mingled gratitude and 
trust, was the utterance of a young man in the 
midst of necessary watchfulness and care, not unat- 



42 GATHERED SHEAVES. 

tended with danger, as we know from the visits of 
the lion and the bear. In his faith in God there is 
not a shadow of doubt or misgiving. He seems to 
be as happy as a mortal man can be even in the 
things of the present, and to this is added the as- 
surance of goodness and mercy all the days of his 
life and of still greater joy in the house of the Lord 
forever. 

Now let all children be taught the words, the 
few simple, beautiful words, of this Psalm, and 
taught to appropriate it as their own, as one of 
their " songs in the house of their pilgrimage." 




THE FIFTY-FIRST PSALM. 

j|N the Fifty-first Psalm we have the deep, 
heart-felt, penitential feelings of David set 
forth as he only could express them. He 
never ceased to mourn over his sin; but the words 
which a sense of his guilt wrung from his broken 
heart, and which he left on record, have been an 
inestimable blessing to the world ever since they 
were penned. In this we see how God brings good 
out of evil. See how David pleads. It is not the 
language of one who felt himself to be a castaway. 
It is anything else than the language of despair ; it 
is that of a child who knows that he is still beloved, 
although he has grievously offended. He expresses 
no dread of utter and final condemnation ; but his 
cry is that of a lost sheep who has strayed away 
from the fold of the Good Shepherd, and was en- 
tangled in the dark mountains of sin. He is a wan- 
derer, and longs to get back; a captive, and cries 
for deliverance. He sees and feels his guilt, and 
prays, " Purge me, and I shall be clean ; wash me, 
and I shall be whiter than snow. Make me to hear 
joy and gladness, that the bones that Thou hast 
broken may rejoice. Restore unto me the joy of 
Thy salvation, and uphold me with Thy free Spirit." 
And now the blessing which he had lost through 
his own waywardness and folly, he seems to have 
found ; for rising above his own personal distress, 
he bursts out into a sublime prayer for Zion. The 

(43) 



44 GATHERED SHEAVES. 

whole Psalm is the language of an offending child, 
one who knows that he still holds that relation to 
his Father, God. 

Too many Christian commentators, divines, and 
others, have held up the language of the Psalmist 
as if he was deprecating divine wrath and ven- 
geance. Dr. Watts, in one of his paraphrases of this 
Psalm, has this verse : 

" Should sudden vengeance seize my breath, 
I must pronounce Thee just in death ; 
And if my soul were sent to hell, 
Thy righteous law approves it well." 

Now how does this gloomy language agree with 
what the Psalmist said, or with this precious verse 
from I John i. 9 : " If we confess our sins, He is 
faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse 
us from all unrighteousness " ? Observe, the Apostle 
does not say that in doing this God is merciful and 
gracious, but that He is " faithful and just." In the 
most emphatic language Paul tells us that " there 
is no condemnation to them who are in Christ 
Jesus "; and this David was before he fell into his 
great crime. Had any one told him what he would 
do, he would have exclaimed as Hazael did, " What ! 
is Thy servant a dog, that he should do this great 
thing?" Yet he did it. Peter, when told that he 
would thrice deny his Lord that very night, ex- 
claimed, " Though all men should deny Thee, yet 
will not I." Yet he did do it. Jesus, in view of 
this fearful aberration, said to Peter : " I have prayed 
for thee that thy faith fail not." And it did not. 
Smitten, melted by that loving, pitying, sorrowing 



THE FIFTY-FIRST PSALM. 45 

glance, he went out and wept bitterly, he confessed 
and bewailed his sin, as we know David did, and 
like him he was instantly forgiven. The faith of 
neither failed, far as they had wandered and terri- 
bly as they had sinned. The language of this grand 
and precious Psalm is as full of faith as it is of pen- 
itence. 

To mingle thoughts of death, hell, and damna- 
tion with that touching and piteous wail of sorrow, 
penitence, and faith, as Dr. Watts has done, is a sad 
departure from the spirit which runs through it, and 
is calculated to lead the minds of worshippers to 
conceptions hard, dark, and erroneous, of our lov- 
ing Father who sent His Son to seek and save the 
lost. Extreme cases prove principles ; hence it has 
pleased God to set before us the cases of two of His 
most eminent saints, David and Peter, to prove to 
us, by suffering them to be led by the evil one into 
the darkest sin, that the believer can not wander so 
far, nor fall so low, but that His love and power are 
able to bring him back, to restore his soul, and make 
him to " walk in the paths of righteousness for His 
name's sake." 



A NEW REVISION OF THE PSALMS. 

|HE revision of the Old Testament, which 
has been in the hands of the Anglo-American 
Company for about twelve years, will be 
given to the public in the early part of 1885. It, 
like the revised New Testament, will be first printed 
in England, in volumes of larger and smaller type, 
and at higher and lower prices. When published 
it will attract much interest among Bible students 
throughout the entire English-speaking world, now 
numbering more than one hundred millions of the 
human race. 

In the meantime an independent revision of the 
Psalms, by John De Witt, D.D., of the Theological 
Seminary, New Brunswick, N. J., a member of the 
American Old Testament revision company, has 
just been published in New York, in a beautiful 
volume from the press of Richard BrinkerhofL 
This work was done with the cordial approba- 
tion of the author's associates of the revision com- 
pany. 

For a few days past, while confined to the house 
by indisposition, I have been examining it and com- 
paring it with the old version with ever-increasing 
interest. The solemn and majestic style of the old 
King James' version is well maintained in this, while 
blemishes and obscurities are satisfactorily removed 
or made clear. The Psalms are given in the poetic 
form of the original Hebrew. Take, for example, 
the first verse of the 22d Psalm: 
(46) 



A NEW REVISION OF THE PSALMS. 47 

My God ! my God ! 

Why hast Thou forsaken me ? 
Why art Thou afar from helping me? 

Afar from my suffering cry ? 

In the old translation this verse reads thus in prose 
form : " My God, my God, why hast Thou forsaken 
me ? why art Thou so far from helping me, and 
from the words of my roaring?" " The words of 
my roaring" is a strong phrase, but coarse com- 
pared with the last line of the revised rendering, 
"my suffering cry" — than which no words could be 
stronger or more touchingly impressive. This verse 
gives a correct idea of the Hebrew poetic form, 
which is maintained throughout the entire book. 

In his preface, speaking of the forthcoming re- 
vision of the Old Testament, the author remarks : 
" Those who wish and hope to see the thought of 
the original put forth in the clearest, strongest, and 
best English expression will not be gratified. It is 
only by independent, individual effort that such re- 
visions of the Psalms can be produced. It was this 
that induced the writer to attempt the translation 
of the Psalms into language that should render the 
original more faithfully, and yet more poetically." 

Dr. De Witt, in his preface, dwells at length upon 
the Hebrew tenses, or rather the absence of tenses. 
" This doctrine," he says, " boldly stated, is that 
there are no tenses in the Hebrew. There is nothing 
in any verb form to indicate whether it is past, 
present, or future. The so-called tenses are rather 

moods The one describes action as completed, 

the other as commencing and in progress The 

historian, entering into the spirit of his narrative, 



48 GATHERED SHEAVES. 

pictures the events as springing up successively as if 
under his own eye. On the other hand the prophet 
transports himself into the future, and describes 
what shall inevitably occur, as if already accom- 
plished." 

Any reader of the English Bible can see that this 
is so in the case of the historian, beginning with 
the account of creation, and all subsequent events 
narrated in the historical Scriptures. Still more 
plainly is this seen in the prophetic writings, where, 
for example, Isaiah, in chapter- liii., is transported 
in spirit into the Christian era, and speaks of the 
atoning death of Christ as an already accomplished 
fact. The same is true of the 46th Psalm, in which 
the writer bounds into a still more remote future, 
and bids the people for whom he writes to " Come, 
behold the works of the Lord, what desolations He 
hath made in the earth ! " It is the language of 
God Himself, to whom all things are everlastingly 
present, but is addressed immediately to all suc- 
cessive generations to the end of time, and adapted 
to their several conditions. The desolations here 
spoken of are yet future. 

In the Second Psalm we have a prophecy of an 
equally far distant future, when Jehovah will put 
the Son in possession of the nations for His inher- 
itance. Yet it is all in the present tense — in that 
everlasting NOW in which He alone dwells. I quote 
the first five verses as they are given in the revised 
version before me : 



1. Why are the heathen in tumult, 

And the nations muttering vainly ? 



A NEW REVISION OF THE PSALMS. 49 

2. Kings of the earth take their stand ; 

Princes are in council together 

Against Jehovah and His Anointed. 

3. " Let us burst their fetters, 

And cast from us their bonds ! " 

4. The enthroned in high heaven laughs ; 

The Lord holdeth them in derision. 

5. Then He speaketh to them in His anger ; 

In His wrath He putteth them in dismay. 

In the old version the future tense is used in the 
4th and 5th verses : " He that sitteth in the heav- 
ens shall laugh ; the Lord shall have them in deri- 
sion. Then shall He speak unto them in His wrath, 
and vex them in His sore displeasure." Unques- 
tionably the prophecy in the 2d and 46th Psalms 
relates to the same grand consummation spoken of 
in Rev. xi. 15 : "And the seventh angel sounded, 
and there were great voices in heaven saying, ' The 
kingdoms of this world are become the kingdoms 
of our Lord and of His Christ.' " The same to 
which Jesus pointed, saying, " This gospel of the 
kingdom shall be preached in all the world, for a 
witness unto all nations ; and then shall the end 
come." And of the same far distant period was 
Isaiah speaking when he wrote, " How beautiful 
upon the mountains are the feet of Him that bring 
the good tidings, that publishes peace, that bring- 
eth good tidings of good, that publishes salvation, 
that sayeth unto Zion, ' Thy God reigneth ! ' " Yet 
at the very time in which we are now living, the 
feet of them who are publishing these good tidings, 
this gospel of the kingdom, are pressing the soil of 
4 



50 GATHERED SHEAVES. 

nearly every nation under heaven. We may, there- 
fore, hope that the time is at hand ; and that we 
may, as Jesus bids us, look up, and lift up our 
heads, for our redemption draweth nigh. 

Now, let us see by quoting from this revision a 
few verses of the 46th Psalm, how grand it is for a 
prophet to transport himself to a far-distant age, 
and describe the tremendous events which will then 
transpire as if he was himself gazing at them, and 
calling upon others to behold, and wonder, and 
rejoice : 

8. Come, behold the doings of Jehovah, 

What desolations He hath wrought in the earth ; 

9. He stilleth wars to earth's bounds ; 

He shivereth the bow, and breaketh the spear ; 
The chariots He burneth with fire 

10. Cease ye, and know that I am God ; 

I will be exalted among the nations ; 
I will be exalted in the earth. 

11. Jehovah of hosts is with us ; 

The God of Jacob is our defence. 

In the 20th verse of the 71st Psalm, as rendered 
by this translation, the doctrine of the resurrection 
of the body is beautifully set forth : 

Thou that hast shown us distresses, many and grievous, 
Wilt restore us unto life ; 

Yea, out of the depths of the earth, 
Thou wilt bring us up again. 

In the old version this verse reads thus : " Thou 
which hast showed me great and sore troubles, 
shalt quicken me again, and shalt bring me up 



A NEW REVISION OF THE PSALMS. 5 1 

again from the depths of the earth." In the 73d 
the doctrine of immortal life and glory is taught in 
language as plain as it can be. I shall quote from 
verse 23 to 26, as they are given in the revised ren- 
dering, although the language is but little changed 
from that found in our Bibles : 

23. But as for me, I am continually with Thee ; 

Thou holdest me by my right hand. 

24. Thou wilt guide me with Thy counsel, 

And afterwards receive me to glory. 

25. Whom have I in heaven but Thee ? 

And having Thee, I delight not in the earth, 

26. My flesh and my heart fail ; 

But God is the strength of my heart 
And my portion forever. 

These two closing quotations I make because I 
have heard men express doubt whether the doc- 
trine of immortality is taught at all in the Old 
Testament. But here we have both " the resurrec- 
tion of the body and the life everlasting." 

For years I have been in the habit of reading the 
sacred Scriptures critically, and, I trust, devoutly, 
but only in the English language, for I understand 
no other ; and I think I do no wrong in criticising 
the felicities and infelicities of expression employed 
by the translators. The slavish adherence to obso- 
lete words, and to words which have changed their 
meaning in the last 270 years, e.g., let, prevent, and 
even the retention of the orthography of the 17th 
century, for example, shew for show, has been to 
me a matter of surprise. The adherence to the 
Greek form of Hebrew names found in the Received 



52 GATHERED SHEAVES. 

Version of the New Testament, where Joshua, the 
leader of Israel into Canaan, is twice changed to 
Jesus, Elisha to Eliseus, and others, thus puzzling 
and bewildering unlearned readers, is another ex- 
ample of this slavish adherence to old usages — to 
the letter that killeth. 

I am fully persuaded that the method of putting 
the work of the translation and revision into the 
hands of companies of scholars, as was done under 
King James 1611, and now — 1870-1884 — under 
other companies, is a mistake. Wickliffe alone in 
the 13th century gave to the people of England a 
clear and vigorous translation of the Bible in the 
crude English of his day. Luther alone gave to 
the Germans a translation about 1560, which to this 
day stands, not only as a standard of pure and classic 
German, but which needs no revision. About the 
same time William Tindale, single-handed, made a 
translation of the New Testament into English, 
which was a most admirable production, and to 
which we are all indebted for the most felicitous 
portions of our Authorized Version. Not long ago 
I compared his rendering of what are called the 
beatitudes, found in the beginning of the 5th chap- 
ter of Matthew, with the Authorized Version, and 
found that the latter was copied almost verbatim 
from Tindale. When such work is committed to 
the hands of a company of scholars, the more timid 
and conservative — who are generally the least gift- 
ed — act as clogs and fetters upon the more highly 
gifted, and thus their work is marred and cramped 
and weakened, and the full spirit and force of the 
original is more or less lost. This is in a peculiar 



A NEW REVISION OF THE PSALMS. 53 

sense true of such writings as the Psalms. Speak- 
ing of the forthcoming revision of the Old Testa- 
ment, the author before me says — a remark already 
quoted in this article — " Those who wish and hope 
to see the thought of the original put forth in the 
clearest, strongest, and best English expression will 
not be gratified. It is only by independent, indi- 
vidual effort that such versions of the Psalms can 
be produced." I think he is right. 



A CRIPPLED TRANSLATION.* 

|HE Eighty-fourth is one of the most beauti- 
ful of the Psalms — one to which every de- 
vout reader of the Bible often turns. " How 
amiable are Thy tabernacles, O Lord of hosts ! " is 
its excellent opening, and the next three verses in 
the Authorized Version are grandly rendered into 
English. But the 5th, 6th, and 7th verses are 
strangely obscure in our Bibles, so that the mind 
of the reader labors in vain to gather any clear idea 
out of the language. Let us quote them : 

" 5. Blessed is the man whose strength is in thee, 
in whose heart are the ways of them. 

" 6. Who passing through the valley of Baca make 
it a well ; the rain also filleth the pools. 

" 7. They go from strength to strength, every one 
of them in Zion appeareth before God." 

In a new translation or revision of the Psalms 
just published, by Dr. John De Witt, a member of 
the Anglo-American company of revisers, who for 
the past twelve years have been engaged on a re- 
vision of the Old Testament — prepared with the 
hearty approbation of his associate revisers, these 
verses are rendered thus : 

5. " O the blessedness of the men 
Whose strength is in thee, 
In whose heart are the highways to Zion ! 



Written during his last illness. 
(54) 



A CRIPPLED TRANSLATION. 55 

6. " Passing through the vale of Weeping, 

They make it a place of springs : 

Yea, with blessings the early rain covereth it. 

7. " They go forward from strength to strength, 

Till each shall appear before God in Zion." 

In this poetic form, following the original He- 
brew, this author or reviser gives all the Psalms. 
He claims that his rendering is more faithful to the 
original than is the Authorized Version, as it cer- 
tainly is clearer to the understanding of the Eng- 
lish reader. 

Now we turn to Dr. Watts to see how he renders 
those same verses in one of his happiest efforts : 

" O happy souls that pray 

Where God appoints to hear ! 
O happy men that pay 

Their constant service there ! 
They praise Thee still ; 
And happy they, that love the way 
To Zion's hill. 

" They go from strength to strength 
Through this dark vale of tears, 
Till each arrives at length, 
Till each in heaven appears ; 
O glorious seac, 
When God our King shall thither bring 
Our willing feet \ v 

Let the reader compare the reading of Dr. Watts 
with that of Dr. De Witt and see how closely they 
agree, and how clear is the thought in both. Both 
must have drawn directly from the Hebrew, other- 
wise such an agreement in the thought expressed 



56 GATHERED SHEAVES. 

would have been impossible, for the imagery is very 
peculiar — so much so that King James' translators 
seem to have been unable to give the passage in 
language that could be understood. 

Dr. De Witt is a professor in the Theological 
Seminary, New Brunswick, N. J. His work is ex- 
ceedingly interesting, and worthy of the attention 
of Bible students. It is an individual effort, and is 
not crippled and rendered spiritless by the con- 
servatism and timidity sure to be found among a 
score or more of associates. But it is not my pur- 
pose to speak at length of the book at this time, 
further than to point out the vast difference be- 
tween the rendering of the 22d and the 23d Psalms. 
The latter, as it stands in our common Bibles, is as 
felicitous as it can be, so that Dr. De Witt, in his 
revision, has made hardly any change. But the 
22d, which is among the grandest of the Messianic 
Psalms, is so translated that it is rarely read from 
the pulpit. About sixty years ago I heard Rev. 
David Blair, of Indiana, Pa., read it from the pulpit 
on a sacramental occasion with thrilling impressive- 
ness ; but never since have I heard it read from the 
pulpit. As it stands in this revised version, the 
first verse is given thus : 

" My God ! my God ! 

Why hast Thou forsaken me ? 
Why art Thou afar from helping me ? 
Afar from my suffering cry ? " 

In the old version this verse reads in prose form : 
" My God, my God, why hast Thou forsaken me ? 
why art Thou so far from helping me, and from the 



A CRIPPLED TRANSLATION. $7 

words of my roaring?" Verses 9, 10, and n are 
thus rendered in this revision : 

9. " Yea, Thou art He that caused me to be born, 
That gave me confidence on my mother's breast. 

10. " Upon Thee was I cast from my birth ; 

From my earliest breath Thou art my God ! 

11. "Be not far from me, for distress is near, 

And there is none to help." 

The language used in the translation of these 
verses would give no offence 270 years ago ; but it 
requires revision to adapt it to our times, the sense 
being exactly the same. Verse 16 is rendered : 

" For dogs have surrounded me ; 

A band of evil-doers hemmeth me in ; 
They pierce my hands and my feet." 

Observe, this " suffering cry " of the agonized 
Saviour is put strictly in the present tense. It, 
like the first verse, is a cry of anguish immediately 
from the Cross. 




MAN'S LIMITATIONS. 

JIN his mortal state man is hedged in within 
very narrow metes and bounds. " The 
days of our years are threescore years and 
ten ; and if by reason of strength they be fourscore 
years, yet is their strength labor and sorrow, for it 
is soon cut off and we fly away," is the mournful 
language of Moses in the Ninetieth Psalm. In the 
twelfth chapter of Ecclesiastes Solomon portrays 
the frailty and brevity of human life in still more 
graphic terms. " What is your life ? " says James ; 
" a vapor that appeareth for a little time, and then 
vanish eth away." 

Such is mortal life ; but the very fact that such 
thoughts as these do enter the minds of mortals is 
proof that mortal life is not man's limit. If death 
ended all, then the human mind would never have 
conceived the idea of a life beyond. No aspirations, 
no hopes, no dread would ever have arisen in man's 
mind of anything in the future after death, any more 
than of the past before his birth. Both the past and 
the future would have been alike beyond his limit. 
But the fact that the idea of an existence beyond 
the grave is almost universal — held alike by Chris- 
tians, Moslems, and Pagans — is the strongest argu- 
ment that nature affords that the doctrine is true. 

But natural reason can not penetrate the thick 
cloud that enshrouds a future state of existence. 
Even the old Hebrew prophets are almost silent on 

(58) 



man's limitations. 59 

the subject of a future state. " The dust shall re- 
turn to the earth as it was," says Solomon, " and 
the spirit shall return to God who gave it." But 
what then? Solomon does not tell us, nor does 
Moses, or David, or Isaiah, or any of the prophets ; 
and yet we learn that those who lived lives of faith 
from Abel all the way down through the Old Testa- 
ment history sought a better country than earth 
afforded, " that is a heavenly country " (Heb. xi. 16), 
and David's joyful exclamation was, " As for me, I 
will behold Thy face in righteousness ; I shall be 
satisfied when I awake with Thy likeness ! " 

But life and immortality were brought clearly to 
light when Christ came. It was like the rising of 
the sun upon a world enshrouded in the gloom of 
night. There had been twinkling stars all through 
that long night of forty centuries. Their light 
guided the people of God in their pilgrimages, and 
God whom they loved and served made that light 
sufficient for them. 

The full and clear revelation of the resurrection 
of the body and of everlasting life ; the assurance 
that the redeemed shall be ever with their Lord ; 
that they shall see Him as He is, and be made like 
Him; the fact that Jesus prayed just before He 
suffered, " Father, I will that they also whom Thou 
hast given me be with me where I am, that they 
may behold my glory "; and that He said to His 
disciples, and through them to all believers, " If I 
go and prepare a place for you, I will come again 
and receive you unto myself, that where I am there 
ye may be also," opens up so inconceivably glori- 
ous a prospect to man — raised from the dead, im- 



60 GATHERED SHEAVES. 

mortal, forever with the Lord, seeing Him as He 
is, becoming more and more like Him, His breth- 
ren, His joint heirs, partners of His throne, partak- 
ers of His divine nature — where can any limit be 
set ? Yet as God is infinite, and as man at the high- 
est advancement he can ever make must necessarily 
be finite, an infinite distance must always remain 
between them. As the period through which he 
shall have existed must always be measurable, and 
as the period still before him can not in the slight- 
est degree be diminished, after ages beyond all that 
the arithmetic of earth or heaven can compute shall 
have rolled behind him, it is plain that in this sense 
man is absolutely an unlimited being — not infinite, 
but unlimited. There is a vast difference between 
the two words — an infinite difference ; although it 
would not be incorrect to apply the weaker term 
even to the Supreme Being. 

It is as impossible for us, with our present capaci- 
ties, to fathom the depth, the grandeur, or the ever 
increasing glory and blessedness involved in the 
term Eternal Life, as it is to grasp the infinite or 
to measure eternity. But God has in Christ swept 
away all clouds, so that we can look into that limit- 
less hereafter as we can look past the stars into the 
unbounded fields of space ; and it is enough to know 
that in that boundless hereafter we shall be with 
the Lord — not wanderers, not strangers, but at 
home in our Father's house. But still it is true that 
" it doth not yet appear what we shall be." Much 
as our blessed Lord has told us, it is still but a 
glimpse of " the glory that shall be revealed in us." 
There is no end to that life ; neither will there be 



man's limitations. 6 1 

any end to the advancement of the redeemed in that 
life. In that direction the believer has no limit ; 
but his course is onward and upward forever and 
ever ; and it will forever be true in his case, at any 
point he can ever reach in that vast hereafter — " It 
doth not yet appear what we shall be ! " 



IS OUR NATIONAL CONSTITUTION 
ATHEISTIC ? 




|OR a number of years past an earnest, but 
not noisy, body of Christian men, repre- 
senting nearly all denominations, have been 
laboring to convince the American people that duty 
and safety both require that our National Consti- 
tution shall be so amended that God shall be dis- 
tinctly recognized as the source of all power and 
authority, the Holy Scriptures be taken as the ex- 
pression of His will, and that Jesus Christ, to whom 
all power in heaven and earth is given, shall be 
acknowledged as the Governor of nations. The 
effect of such an amendment would be to bring the 
government of this nation into harmony with the 
religious convictions and consciences of the great 
majority of our people. The number of those 
whose consciences impel them to favor this amend- 
ment is rapidly increasing ; and the day is not dis- 
tant when the discussion of this question will stir 
and divide the whole American people. Every cit- 
izen will be constrained to take one side or the 
other. 

Some people fancy that they see in this proposed 
amendment the old bugbear of a union of Church 
and State. But let me try to show the difference 
between the two. In the union of the State with 
the Church the connection is between one branch 
or denomination of the Church and the State, e. g., 
(62) 



IS OUR NATIONAL CONSTITUTION ATHEISTIC? 63 

the Catholic in the Catholic states of Europe and 
America ; the Episcopalian as in England ; the 
Lutheran as in Germany, and as it was and perhaps 
is yet, in the Scandinavian states ; and the Greek 
Church, as in Russia and Greece. These may serve 
as samples of that thing. Through these particular 
communions the State is supposed to be united to 
God and Christ, while other communions— as the 
Protestants in Catholic states, and the dissenters 
and Catholics in England, if tolerated at all, are 
supposed to be lying outside of the union, and have 
no part or lot in either Church or State as Chris- 
tians, whatever they may have as citizens. In this 
system the link between God and the State — and 
the only one — is that particular Christian sect to 
which the State is united. 

But the thing aimed at in this movement in our 
country is altogether different. It is proposed to 
unite the State directly to God — that the nation 
as such shall confess Him as its sovereign lawgiver, 
in perfect independence of the Church. The State 
itself, for itself, independent of any ecclesiastical 
authority found on earth, shall make a religious 
confession of God — the God known as the Father 
of our Lord Jesus Christ — not as a Church, not 
through the Church, but immediately. The Church 
has its peculiar link which binds it to the throne of 
the Most High ; the State shall have another, and 
one suited to it. In God, therefore, and nowhere 
else, the State and the Church will have one com- 
mon centre, and through these widely different and 
independent links or bonds of union, both will re- 
ceive blessings suited to them. The Church and 



64 GATHERED SHEAVES. 

the State will thus be united in God— both will 
rest upon the same Rock ; but they will not be 
coupled together. In this union there can be no 
priestly domination over the consciences of men. 

But, it may be asked, are we not already, as a 
nation, united to the throne of God? To this I 
would say, Yes, in many respects we are. Our 
whole history, both as colonies and as states, is full 
of scattered professions of faith in the Supreme 
Ruler of the Universe. I need not specify, al- 
though it would be easy to do so. Many times as 
a people we have acknowledged God, and on no 
occasion have we expressly denied Him, as France 
did just before she entered upon her Reign of Ter- 
ror. Yet at the very time and place where our con- 
fession ought to have been made we totally ig- 
nored Him — not denied Him, but passed Him by 
as though He had no part nor lot in our national 
life. We placed the crown, which of right belongs 
to Him, as the centre and source of all authority 
and power, upon the head of " We the people of 
the United States." This left our organic law, not 
positively, or in express terms, atheistic, but nega- 
tively so. Bold, bad men are now confidently 
claiming that it is positively atheistic ; and that 
any legislation intended to maintain the least trace 
of Christianity — laws to enforce a proper observance 
of the Sabbath, the appointment by law of chap- 
lains, etc., etc., are all in violation of this funda- 
mental law. Although we do not yield to such 
arguments, it is somewhat difficult to meet them 
with the Constitution as it is. Perhaps it is well 
that atheists and other enemies of Christianity 



IS OUR NATIONAL CONSTITUTION ATHEISTIC ? 65 

should so argue ; for it will do more than anything- 
else to draw the attention of the American people 
to the fact that their organic law, great and admi- 
rable as it is, is not in harmony with the national 
life and conscience, and that it is their duty to 
bring it into harmony as soon as possible. 

That the Constitution as it stands is negatively 
atheistic I believe ; although some excellent men 
will not admit that much, and point to the formula, 
" In the year of our Lord," as being a kind of 
Christian confession. But that is a weak point and 
ought never to be pressed; for the phrase — what- 
ever may have been its original force — is now but a 
conventional formula, used alike by believers and 
unbelievers. The omission of the acknowledg- 
ment of the Almighty, although we think that it 
does not leave the Constitution atheistic in a posi- 
tive sense, was a great mistake, and the sooner it is 
put right the better. 

How that omission came about is a question that 
has been much discussed. The story that Alex- 
ander Hamilton, when spoken to by one of his 
friends on the subject, accounted for the omission 
by saying, " Indeed, Doctor, we forgot it," is hardly 
credible. A more plausible reason can be found in 
the spirit of the popular mind at that particular 
juncture in the history of Christendom. For cen- 
turies the union of Church and State in Europe 
had lain as a heavy yoke upon the nations. In 
I776,when our Declaration of Independence startled 
the world with new light and life, and with new 
ideas of what government ought to be, a mighty 
movement began, especially in France — a move- 
5 



66 GATHERED SHEAVES. 

ment in the right direction at first, and which in 
the period between 1776 and 1787 had grown pro- 
digiously, but had not then culminated in the hor- 
rors of 1793. That sentiment was strongly felt on 
this side of the Atlantic. The leaders of thought 
in France saw in the unholy union of secular and 
sacerdotal power the secret of the strength of 
tyranny, and put forth their utmost efforts to break 
that union. In this they did right. But, unfortu- 
nately for France and for the world, those political 
philosophers were unable to discriminate and draw 
a line between Religion, as a grand abstract idea, 
and the Church, and between God and the men 
who claimed to be His representatives and ministers. 
Hence it was that they did not stop until not only 
the Church and the Priesthood, but Religion, and 
even God Himself, were swept out of the State, 
and it became not only secular, but positively athe- 
istic. Soon afterward the miserable Republic ex- 
pired in darkness, horror, and blood. Our Consti- 
tution, as before observed, was framed before the 
awful consummation ; yet it was at the very time 
when that just battle against the union of Church 
and State was at its height. The American people 
were in strong sympathy with those who were 
struggling for freedom in France ; and the senti- 
ment of opposition to Church and State was as 
earnest here as it was there. At that time the men 
of America seemed to be as incapable of drawing 
a clear line of distinction between God and Relig- 
ion, which is simply loyalty to God, on the one 
hand, and the Church with an organized priesthood 
on the other, as were the people of France. I am 



IS OUR NATIONAL CONSTITUTION ATHEISTIC? 67 

old enough to remember hearing impassioned har- 
angues in political meetings against " Church and 
State." About the year 1820 the American Sun- 
day-school Union was formed in Philadelphia. The 
association applied to the Legislature of Pennsyl- 
vania for a charter ; but the bill to grant it raised 
a wild storm of opposition, under the plea that it 
was but the entering wedge to a union of Church 
and State. Zealous patriots, who did not know 
what they were talking about, got off some flaming 
speeches for buncombe, and the bill was defeated. 
The Sunday-school Union, however, went on, with 
good old Paul Beck as their trustee, for some years, 
without a charter. Finally, when the politicians 
had got over that nonsense — I think it was in 1824 
— a charter was granted, and the Sunday-school 
Union has now gone on in its beneficent work for 
fifty-five years ; but Church and State are not yet 
united. 

Our statesmen, in framing the Constitution, 
aimed to make the government purely secular — 
not atheistic — to put it upon neutral ground as re- 
gards the Supreme Ruler of all ; and in order to 
do so they simply ignored Him. But we have now 
discovered by experience that to ignore Him is to 
deny Him. We are beginning to see that Christ 
uttered a great truth when He said, " He that is 
not with me is against me." His active enemies 
among us have proved this by claiming that the 
Constitution favors their views and not ours, and 
that under its authority they have a right to " de- 
mand " that every trace of Christianity shall be 
eliminated from our laws and our governmental in- 



68 GATHERED SHEAVES. 

stitutions. Our fancied neutral ground is slipping 
from under us like moving quicksand, and very 
soon we must, as a nation, either take hold of the 
Hand which led our fathers to these shores and to 
which they clung in childlike faith, or sink into the 
dark vortex of atheism. 



A VERY COMMON DELUSION. 

HERE is no delusion more common, more 
dangerous, or more senseless than this : " I 
do not profess to be a Christian, therefore 
I can do many things which it would be wrong for 
me to do if I were a professor; and I can leave 
undone many things which in that case I would be 
bound to do." 

A ranker fallacy than this never entered the hu- 
man mind ; for God's law of right and wrong is 
fixed and irrevocable, and binding alike upon all, 
no matter whether we acknowledge our obligations 
to be governed by it or not. Our neglect or re- 
fusal to make a confesrion of our faith and of our 
obligation to obedience, while it is in itself a gross 
sin, does not in the slightest degree relax our ob- 
ligation to the requirements of God's law. The 
professor and the non-professor are alike bound by 
it, and amenable to its penalties. 

Suppose a man should plead, " I don't pretend 
to be an honest man ; therefore I incur no guilt 
when I defraud my neighbor or steal his property." 
Or, " I don't profess to be a man of truth ; there- 
fore I can lie as much as I please with impunity." 
Or, " I never pretended to be a moral man, and 
for that reason I can blaspheme the name of my 
Maker, or indulge as I please in obscene language 
or conduct. In .short, I am free to do just as I 
please and still be as good as I pretend to be. I 

(69) 



JO GATHERED SHEAVES. 

am no hypocrite." No argument is needed to show 
the absurdity of such reasoning as this ; and yet it 
is just as rational as that which claims for a non- 
professor greater liberty than a professing Christian 
enjoys in the pursuit of the pleasures or profits of 
the world. The pleas offered in these supposed 
cases, instead of mitigating the depravity of the 
parties offering them, would only enhance it, and 
bring upon them deeper condemnation both from 
God and man ; and for a man or woman to claim 
more liberty to indulge in sinful pleasures or prac- 
tices than a professing Christian can claim is quite 
as unjustifiable. It is an attempt to take advantage 
of their own wrong, thus adding sin to sin. 

The silly notion which many unthinking people 
cherish is that if they can only avoid the guilt of 
hypocrisy they are all right. Hypocrisy is bad, but 
this is even worse ; for while the hypocrite acknowl- 
edges, at least professedly, God's right to rule 
over him, the other boldly and deliberately denies 
this right, and sets His authority at defiance. He 
denies Christ and His salvation, and says by his 
conduct that he has no need of Him. 




SACRED SONGS OF THE CENTURIES. 

HOMEBODY said, "Let me make the songs 
of a people, and I care not who makes 
their laws." If that could be said in the 
political world, with equal truth might it be said of 
the religious world, " Let me make its songs, and 1 
care 1 not who makes its dogmas." This thought 
came into my mind while reading a most interesting 
volume entitled " Evenings with the Sacred Poets ; 
a series of Quiet Talks about the Singers and their 
Songs." Beginning with the sacred oracles, Moses, 
the prophets, and the Psalms, the author leads us 
down the ages, through the apostolic and early 
Church into the Greek and the Latin, the eastern 
and the western — through the mediaeval period, 
commonly called the dark ages — and down through 
the Reformation to our own times, giving brief 
translations of the Greek and Latin hymns, some 
from the modern languages of continental Europe, 
and many from the rich stores of our own tongue. 
He also gives brief sketches of many of the writers. 
That which most impressed me was the true and 
fervent spirit of Christian faith and devotion which 
breathes in the sacred songs which have come down 
to us from the deep darkness of the mediaeval 
period. 

The earliest known Christian hymn is ascribed 
to Clement, Bishop of Alexandria, who suffered 
martyrdom A.D. 217. We shall give but the open- 

(71) 



72 GATHERED SHEAVES. 

ing verse, translated from the original Greek by 
Rev. Mr. Plumptre : 

Shepherd of sheep that own 
Their Master on the throne, 
Stir up Thy children meek 
With guileless lips to speak, 
In hymn and song, Thy praise. 
Guide of their infant ways, 
O King of saints, O Lord ! 
Mighty, all-conquering word ; 
Son of the highest God, 
Wielding His wisdom's rod; 
Our stay when cares annoy, 
Giver of endless joy ; 
Of all our mortal race 
Saviour of boundless grace, — 
O Jesus, hear ! 

Compressed into this one verse the reader will 
find all the grand truths of the Gospel expressed in 
childlike simplicity and living power. 

We come down about two centuries later. Greg- 
ory of Nyssa, in an Evening Hymn, thus confesses 
his faith in the Divinity of Christ. It comes down 
to us from the troublous times of Julian the apostate, 
and from the strife of sects and heresies which in 
his day rent the Church. We can give but a few 
words : 

Christ, my Lord, I come to bless Thee, 

Now when day is veiled in night ; 
Thou who knowest no beginning, 

Light of the Eternal Light ! 
Thou hast set the radiant heavens, 
With Thy many lamps of brightness 



SACRED SONGS OF THE CENTURIES. 73 

Filling all the vaults above ; 
Day and night in turn subjecting 
To a brotherhood of service, 

And a mutual law of love ! 

We come now to the ninth century. St. John 
of Damascus gave to the Eastern Church this 
" Hymn of Victory," to be sung immediately after 
midnight on Easter morning : 

'Tis the day of Resurrection ! earth tell it all abroad ! 
The Passover of gladness ! the Passover of God ! 
From death to life eternal, from earth unto the sky, 
Our Christ hath brought us over, with hymns of victory ! 
Our hearts be pure from evil that we may see aright 
The Lord in rays eternal of Resurrection light ; 
And listening to His accents, may hear so calm and plain 
His own " All hail ! " and, hearing, may raise the victor 

strain. 
Now let the heavens be joyful ; let earth her song begin ; 
Let the round world keep triumph, and all that is therein ! 
Invisible or visible, their notes let all things blend ; 
For Christ the Lord hath risen, our joy that hath no end ! 

From the deep darkness which covered the earth 
a thousand years ago, while Alfred the Great of 
England was on the throne doing all that one man 
could do to dissipate the gloom of ignorance and 
sacerdotal domination, this grand song of triumph, 
surpassing any effort of modern genius, was given 
to the benighted Church, and doubtless did much 
to keep alive the flame of true devotion in the 
hearts of the Lord's hidden ones of that day, and 
still darker days to come. 

We now reach the Latin or Western Church. 
Ambrose, who lived in the fourth century, gave to 



74 GATHERED SHEAVES. 

the Church many hymns, all full of pure doctrine 
and ardent devotion. We can give but a single 
verse : 

O admirable mystery ! 

The sins of all are laid on Thee : 

And Thou, to cleanse the world's deep stain, 

As man, dost bear the sins of men. 

What can be ever more sublime ! 

That grace might meet the guilt of time, 

Love doth the bonds of fear undo, 

And death restores our life anew ! 

The Venerable Bede, a Saxon monk of England, 
who lived from 672 to 735, and who gave to the 
Saxons a version of St. John's Gospel in their own 
language (for he lived before Rome forbade such 
a thing), was a fine Latin poet and wrote some 
hymns, a part of one of which, as translated by 
Mrs. Charles, is here given : 

A hymn of glory let us sing : 

New hymns throughout the world shall ring ; 

By a new way, none ever trod, 

Christ mounteth to the throne of God, 

Calm soaring through the radiant sky, 

Mounting its dazzling summits high. 

May our affections thither tend, 
And thither constantly ascend, — 
Where, seated on the Father's throne, 
Thee reigning in the heavens we own ; 
And as the countless ages flee, 
May all our glory be in Thee ! 

Bernard, Abbot of Clairvaux, France, was an 
ascetic of the severest order, yet one of the best 
men of his day. He was born A.D. 1091. In 1140 



SACRED SONGS OF THE CENTURIES. 75 

he had a controversy with the rationalistic Abelard, 
which so pleased the reigning pontiff that he hailed 
him as " the champion of the orthodoxy of his 
day." As a writer of sacred lyrics he had few 
equals, and the spirit of these productions is so 
pure that they might with profit be introduced into 
the most orthodox of Protestant worship, as indeed 
some of them are. Here is one : 

Jesus, Thou joy of loving hearts, 

Thou fount of life, Thou Light of men, 

From the best bliss that earth imparts, 
We turn, unfilled, to Thee again. 

Thy truth unchanged hath ever stood ; 

Thou savest those that on Thee call ; 
To them that seek Thee, Thou art good ; 

To them that find Thee, all in all. 

We taste Thee, O Thou Living Bread, 
And long to feast upon Thee still ; 

We drink of Thee, the Fountain-head, 
And thirst our souls on Thee to fill. 

Our restless spirits yearn for Thee, 
Where'er our changeful lot is cast ; 

Glad, when Thy gracious smile we see ; 
Blest when our faith can hold Thee fast. 

O Jesus, ever with us stay ! 

Make all our moments calm and bright ; 
Chase the dark night of sin away, 

Shed o'er the world Thy holy light. 

Bernard of Cluny, a contemporary of the other 
Bernard just quoted, is the author of "Jerusalem 
the Golden," well known to most readers, " lines, 



?6 GATHERED SHEAVES. 

perhaps unparalleled for their energy, fervor, and 
sublimity." Robert, king of France, who lived 
about the same time, wrote a beautiful hymn, en- 
titled " Vent, Sancte Spiritus." It has five verses ; 
we quote but one : 

What is arid, fresh bedew, 
What is sordid, cleanse anew, 

Balm on the wounded pour ; 
What is rigid, gently bend ; 
On what is cold, Thy fervor send ; 

What has strayed, restore. 

Cardinal Damiano, Bishop of Ostia, a zealous 
moral reformer, died A.D. 1071. The great hymn 
on the Joys of Paradise, often attributed to Augus- 
tine, is his. We have only room for a few of the 
closing lines : 

Ever filled and ever seeking, 
What they have they still desire ; 

Hunger there shall fret them never ; 
Nor satiety shall tire ; 

Still enjoying whilst aspiring, 
In their joy they still aspire. 

There the new song, new forever, 

Those melodious voices sing ; 
Ceaseless streams of fullest music 

Through those blessed regions ring — 
Crowned victors ever bringing 

Praises worthy of the King. 

Now we come down to the twelfth and thirteenth 
centuries, when Mariolatry and the invocation of 
saints — that hugest of the heresies of the Romish 



SACRED SONGS OF THE CENTURIES. JJ 

Church — first became prevalent ; when hard dog- 
mas on one side, and the lust of sacerdotal domina- 
tion on the other, cast their galling fetters over an 
ignorant and superstitious world ; when through 
the horrors of purgatorial fires a lurid hope glim- 
mered upon the affrighted consciences of sinners ; 
when painful penances were substituted for the all- 
cleansing blood of the Redeemer ; when money 
paid for holy uses could purchase exemption from 
the penalty of sin, and indulgences began to be 
hawked about as wares in the market — then it was 
that the spirit of sacred song began to wane in 
purity. Dread supplanted joy in the Christian 
heart, and trusting love gave place to trembling 
deprecation. For an example of this sad change I 
need only point to " Dies Ir&" (Day of Wrath), a 
hymn so much admired, and which so many schol- 
ars have labored to translate from the original 
Latin. I freely admit its terrific power and its 
agonizing pleadings ; but still I can not admire it. 
It was in the same era that Dante's Inferno was 
given to the world — a gift of very questionable 
value, whatever scholars may say. 

But all these horrible departures from the truth 
as it is in Jesus seemed to cluster around that cen- 
tral abomination, Mariolatry. Hymns in praise of 
Mary the mother of God began to be thrown out 
to supplant the grand old praises of the Son of 
God, and thus the last citadel of Gospel truth was 
captured. In view of such a state of things — when 
He who walks among the golden candlesticks sees 
His meek and lowly and now sainted mother thrust 
into His seat by priests who bear His name, His 



78 GATHERED SHEAVES. 

own awful words, spoken long ago at the marriage 
in Cana, come back to our minds with tremendous 
force — " Woman, what have I to do with thee ? " 
Surely it was time for the Reformation ; and very 
soon it did come. But still it is pleasant and cheer- 
ing" to call back those beautiful songs which scat- 
tered the deep darkness of seven or eight centuries 
of what we perhaps too carelessly call the dark 
ages. They come down to us through the chaos 
of ignorance, superstition, metaphysical jargon, and 
ecclesiastical turbulence, to show us that the people 
of those days had more and purer light than we are 
in the habit of supposing. 

The fountain of true Christian song, which had 
been stopped up by the rubbish of the two last and 
darkest centuries, burst out afresh at the Reforma- 
tion. The lion-hearted Luther, with all the rough 
and rugged grandeur of his nature, was a sweet and 
eloquent singer, and so was the gentler Zwingle of 
Switzerland. Indeed there was a host of gifted 
men raised up to give to the people songs in which 
were embodied the precious truths of a pure gospel. 
Song was perhaps the mightiest instrumentality 
which God employed in that great purgation of 
His Church. Among those singers we may name 
Neander, Gustavus Adolphus, and one Hans Sachs, 
a shoemaker of Nuremberg. But there were many 
others. I wish I had room for several of those 
glowing productions ; but I must content myself 
with the two concluding stanzas of Sachs' cele- 
brated funeral hymn translated from the German : 

Now of a lasting home possessed, 
He goes to seek a deeper rest ; 



SACRED SONGS OF THE CENTURIES. 79 

Good-night ! the day was sultry here, 

In toil and fear ; 
Good-night ! —the night is cool and clear. 

Chime on, ye bells ! Again begin, 
And ring the Sabbath morning in ; 
The laborer's week-day work is done, 

The rest begun, 
Which Christ has for His people won ! 




CALL YOU THIS CHANCE P 

j]HE writer had four sons in the service dur- 
ing the war of the Rebellion. John S. 
Copley, the eldest of the four, was killed in 
the battle of South Mountain, in Maryland, on the 
14th of September, 1862. He was a member of 
Company A, 9th Pennsylvania Reserves, a good 
man, and a sincere Christian. Of his death I was 
able to answer, " It is well." 

The next in age was Albert, a member of the 78th 
Pennsylvania volunteers. In character he was like 
his brother. At the battle of Stone River, in Ten- 
nessee, he was wounded by an exploded shell and 
captured. He and his fellow-prisoners were put on 
board a train and carried southward nearly to the 
border of Florida. There they were turned back, 
to be taken to Richmond, because some Union 
forces had in the meantime come near to that part 
of the Gulf States. 

Although not mortally wounded, 1,200 miles of 
continuous travelling was more than he was able 
to bear. When the returning train got as far as 
Knoxville, Tenn., he was taken off and put into a 
hospital. There he wrote me a short letter, giv- 
ing me the above facts. He spoke hopefully of 
his recovery ; but very soon afterward another 
letter from some one there informed me of his 
(So) 



CALL YOU THIS CHANCE? 8 1 

death. But that was all. I wrote to his captain, 
and to Gen. Jas. S. Negley, then in command 
of his division. Both returned kind replies, but 
could give me no information subsequent to his 
capture. 

During that war, as many people will remember, 
a band of generous men and women organized for 
the purpose of giving a good meal to every regi- 
ment which passed through Pittsburgh, no matter 
what the hour might be. A few weeks after Albert's 
death I learned that a regiment in transit from west 
to east would be at the City Hall about midnight 
that night. I lived in Allegheny City at the time, 
and had no active part in that good work. But still 
I felt that I must go over that night and see " the 
boys." 

When I entered the hall I found them around 
the long tables to the number of ten or twelve 
hundred, all highly pleased, as if they enjoyed 
their bountiful warm supper. I stood near the 
entrance and looked on until they were through 
and had begun to gather into groups. Then I 
walked down among them, but spoke to none until 
I noticed a good-looking young man standing alone. 
I went to him and entered into conversation. He 
told me that he was a member of an Ohio regiment, 
giving its number, and that he belonged to what 
was known as the Army of the Cumberland. " Did 
you ever meet any of the men of the 78th Pennsyl- 
vania?" I asked. " Yes," he replied; " we lay for 
some time alongside of that regiment, and I got ac- 
quainted with a good many of the boys." " Did 
6 



82 GATHERED SHEAVES. 

you know a man named Albert Copley?" He 
started at the question, and exclaimed, " Albert 
Copley ! Why, I was lying beside him in the hos- 
pital when he died." He then told me that he was 
captured at the same time — that they travelled all 
that round in the same car — that he dressed Albert's 
wound daily as well as he could — that before reach- 
ing Knoxville he himself took sick — that both were 
put into the same hospital, and occupied couches 
side by side. He said Albert was in a fair way of 
recovery until erysipelas set in, which soon termi- 
nated in death. He spoke of his resignation, 
cheerfulness, and hopefulness, and of his grati- 
tude to his nurse, who had been very kind to 
him. I inquired of him if he knew anything of 
his grave ; but he did not, for he was too sick to 
attend his funeral. He told me that Albert gave 
that nurse what little he had in return for his un- 
wearying kindness. 

My good soldier friend then told me that he had 
a slight wound on the ankle which was giving him 
trouble, and inquired if there was any chance of 
having it dressed. I at once took him into a little 
room in the corner of the hall where there were all 
needed appliances for such a purpose. Believe me 
that I was glad that I was thus able to make our 
meeting a mutual benefit. 

Now what shall we say to all this ? If you ask 
why I went over at all at that unseasonable hour, I 
can not tell you. And when I got there, was it 
chance that led me to the only man among ten or 
twelve hundred. who was able to save me the infor- 



CALL YOU THIS CHANCE? 83 

mation for which I so earnestly yearned ? They who 
please may think so and say so ; but I feel that it 
would be wicked in me to do either. Dear reader, 
you have my simple story — interpret it as may seem 
best to yourselves. 




RECOLLECTIONS OF BOYHOOD. 

J]S men grow old their earliest recollections 
come back more clearly than do the mem- 
ories of middle life. At least I find it to 
be so with myself, and I suppose that it is more or 
less so with all. My own memory has one pecu- 
liarity, and that is, that the great events which 
transpired while I was a boy are blended and asso- 
ciated with my own personal history, so that the 
recollection of one brings with it that of the other. 
If in reading history, which fell within the range of 
my own memory — say seventy years — I come upon 
a particular date, I can recall my own history at 
that day. In this way I have an accurate chrono- 
logical memory without recourse to written or 
printed memoranda of any kind. 

I now go back to 1810, to my first school. That 
was long before there were any laws regulating 
education. In that sparsely settled region the 
neighbors got together and put up a school-house 
— a log-cabin of the most primitive kind. To take 
the trees where nature had planted them and put 
up the house and finish it ready for occupancy was 
only one day's work for about twenty men, and it 
cost not one cent of money. I mean ours did not. 
There was not in that house an inch of sawed lum- 
ber, nor a nail, nor a single light of glass, nor any- 
thing whatever but what was found within a hun- 
dred yards of the site. The roof was of clapboards ; 
(84) 



RECOLLECTIONS OF BOYHOOD. 85 

the floors, the seats, and even the writing-desk, 
were made of split logs hewed smooth on the split 
side. We called them puncheons, but it was not a 
correct use of the word. At the end of the one 
room a huge fire-place was built, made up of a 
judicious combination of small logs, stones, and 
clay. But the school, of which I am about to tell 
you, was held in the summer, so that the fire-place 
served as a nice alcove in which the "master" 
could sit and smoke after he had finished hearing 
the lessons all round. 

Our dominie that summer was a bachelor named 
Shields, of perhaps sixty years of age, a brother of a 
neighboring farmer ; and being past the age for hard 
labor, he was chosen to teach the young ones " the 
rudiments." He was good-natured and kind, and 
magnified his office by a strict code of laws; and 
what the sword is in the hands of the magistrate 
the rod was in his — a terror to evil-doers. He 
was fully persuaded of his duty to wield it on all 
proper occasions, and they were very frequent. 
Even in this he was systematic. His was no 
ordinary thrashing. The girls, to be sure, had 
to take their share in the ordinary way ; but 
the boys were invariably " horsed." This requires 
some explanation. A boy when observed to be 
doing something that he ought not to do — whisper- 
ing, for example — was called up, and another boy 
was called up with him to play the part of horse. 
The offender was then ordered to mount upon the 
back of the horse-boy, who would stoop a little, 
and thus bring into prominence the proper place to 
apply the rod; and the turpitude of the offence 



86 GATHERED SHEAVES. 

would determine whether there should be few or 
many stripes. If two boys offended at once, which 
was often the case, they played the part of horse 
and rider interchangeably. Every day this ridicu- 
lous scene was enacted, perhaps a dozen times. 

The grave dignity with which this administration 
of law was carried on, and the total absence of 
anything like malice or cruelty on the part of the 
executive, was the most amusing part of it, as I 
now see it ; but at that time, being under seven 
years of age, I thought it all right — that it was a 
part of the work of education. But the old man 
evidently enjoyed it. One morning a timid little 
fellow put in his first appearance. I was sitting 
near the " master," and remember accurately every 
word of the conversation between him and the boy. 

" Well, my boy, you've come to school ? " " Yes — 
sur-r-r." " Do you like to come to school ?" "Yes — 
sur-r-r." " Can you read ? " "No — sur-r-r." "Well, 
you must try and larn." (Then a pause.) " But, 
my boy, was you ever horsed ? " " No-o-o — sur," 
replied the poor little fellow, tremblingly. " Well, 
I think we'll begin with that." 

He then called up another little boy, upon whose 
back the neophyte was directed to climb. The rod 
was then applied, but so gently as not to hurt 
him at all. The little fellow was then in the kind- 
est manner set to work out the mysteries of the 
alphabet. 

The first work every morning was to hear lessons, 
singly or in classes. The alphabet, spelling, and 
reading comprised all the studies in the school. 
There was no writing, no arithmetic. This round 



RECOLLECTIONS OF BOYHOOD. 87 

of lessons required over an hour, perhaps two hours. 
Then the dominie would take his stool and set it 
in the big fire-place ; get out his pipe, his tobacco- 
• pouch, his flint, steel, and punk, fill his pipe, strike 
fire, light his pipe, and settle himself for a good 
smoke. 

" Now, children, let me hear you read," was the 
next command, while the old gentleman's face 
beamed with benevolence and satisfaction. Up to 
that moment the pupils had sat in silence watching 
the interesting operation of striking fire and light- 
ing the pipe. But the moment the word was given 
to read, every voice in the house opened in the 
highest key it could reach, whether its owner was 
at the A, B, C's, or spelling, or reading the lesson 
of the day. The din may be imagined, but I can 
not describe it, and it was kept up as long as the 
pipe held out. I was so young that I was not ex- 
pected to join in the " reading," so I sat and watched 
and listened. 

I did not go to that school long, and of course 
made no progress. In 18 12 we had another teacher 
in the same house altogether different, and with 
him I did make progress, as did most of the others. 
Still it was a school of a low order compared with 
the common schools of the present day. We had 
no reading-books other than the Old and New Tes- 
taments. The latter was principally used ; and I 
am not sure that the Readers which were subse- 
quently introduced have been any improvement 
upon that best of all books. Much of my own fa- 
miliarity with the Scriptures I can trace back to 
those school readings. 



88 GATHERED SHEAVES. 

About 1810 a speller was compiled in Pittsburgh, 
and published by Cramer, Spear & Eichbaum, called 
the " United States Spelling-Book." The reading 
lessons in it were made up largely from the Scrip- 
tures, partly from the writings of Solomon, and 
partly from the parables of our Lord. That they 
exerted an excellent influence upon the young 
mind I know, for it was the book I used. If I ever 
knew who was the compiler of that book I have 
forgotten. 

In the period of which I have been speaking the 
war of 18 1 2 was going on ; and the destruction of 
Campbell's mill and the unfortunate operations on 
the river Raisin,, happening about the same time, 
are yet associated in my mind. The wars of the 
first Napoleon were also going on, and interested 
the people greatly, as the slow-going ships of that 
day brought news forty to sixty days old at long 
intervals. The burning of Moscow was the first 
event in those great wars which arrested my atten- 
tion strongly. A weekly newspaper, printed in 
Greensburg, was taken in our family; and well do I 
remember how our neighbors gathered in to hear 
the news of that terrible campaign of Bonaparte, 
as we called him, to the ancient capital of Russia, 
of the destruction of the city, and of his disastrous 
retreat. So the memories of home affairs are asso- 
ciated with those great events, but not confused. 

The great comet of 181 1 is a clearer and more 
vivid memory than if I had seen it forty years later 
in life. Night after night I stood out and gazed 
at the grand spectacle, as it stretched its gradually 
widening tail from near the horizon to the zenith, 



RECOLLECTIONS OF BOYHOOD. 89 

and several degrees beyond it. My father, who was 
well versed in astronomy, explained its nature as 
far as we could understand it ; and when he told 
us that it was then moving at the rate of sixteen 
thousand miles a minute, the awful sublimity of the 
heavenly bodies impressed my mind as only first 
impressions can. 

Some weeks before the great comet made its ap- 
pearance we had an annular eclipse of the sun, of 
which our locality must have been exactly the cen- 
tre. While it was coming on we were directed by 
our mother to fill a wide iron kettle with clear water ; 
and, as the air was calm, the surface was perfectly 
still and served as a mirror, yet did not reflect 
so much light as to injure the eyes. In that we 
watched its progress, until all that remained of the 
sun was a delicate ring around the dark body of the 
moon as fine as a thread, but which did not continue 
an unbroken ring for more than half a minute. 
While it did continue it was inexpressibly beautiful. 
As the moon advanced the ring broke into what for 
a moment seemed to be a line of brilliant drops, 
and then the sun took the form of a long and deli- 
cate crescent. From that to the end the phenom- 
enon passed through the regular phases common to 
all eclipses. 

The year 181 1 was remarkable in many respects. 
It began with the embargo and the dark cloud of 
impending war, which broke upon an ill-prepared 
country the following year. Next followed the tre- 
mendous earthquake which shook a large portion 
of the valley of the Mississippi, especially in the 
then Territories of Mississippi and Missouri. Then 



90 GATHERED SHEAVES. 

followed the remarkable annular eclipse before 
spoken of. This was soon followed by the comet 
of which I have spoken, which did not disappear 
until the last of November. And then, on the 
night before Christmas, came the horrible holocaust 
of the Richmond theatre, where about eighty per- 
sons of the wealthy and cultivated classes of that 
city were burned to death. In those slow, dull 
times that fearful catastrophe sent a thrill of horror 
throughout the whole country. Thus closed that 
melancholy year, to be followed by three more of 
warfare, for which the country was not prepared, 
and which it would not have gone into but for the 
intrigues set on foot by Napoleon the Great. 



A MAP OF THE WORLD, A.D. 1490. 

|WO years before Christopher Colon, or Co- 
lumbus, as he is more commonly called, set 
sail on his first voyage of discovery, Herr 
Martin Behaim, of Nuremburg, constructed a globe 
fifty-four centimetres in diameter. It is a wooden 
ball covered with pasteboard, on which is drawn a 
map of the world as far as it was then known. It 
is still in existence, and is a valuable relic. 

I have now before me an engraving of a photo- 
graph of this globe. The entire surface of the globe 
is covered with lands and seas, continents, oceans, 
and islands, some real and some imaginary. Accord- 
ing to this map at least one-half of our globe is land. 
What was then known of its surface is delineated 
so as to be easily recognizable, but still very inac- 
curate. Between the western coast of Europe and 
Africa, on one side, and Asia, or what was then 
vaguely known as India, on the other side, stretched 
the only wide ocean on that map ; but it is name- 
less. America, both North and South, was then 
unknown, and of course has no place on Herr Be- 
haim's globe. This ocean, in its proportion to the 
whole globe, is not much wider than the Atlantic 
is now known to be. There is no ocean correspond- 
ing to the Pacific ; but the continent of Asia, which 
is also nameless, is made to stretch eastward toward 
the western coast of Europe almost as far as to 

(91) 



92 GATHERED SHEAVES. 

where our Atlantic coast is, leaving an ocean but 
little wider than the Atlantic, as before remarked. 

Columbus supposed that by sailing westward 
across this only great ocean he could reach the 
eastern coast of Asia, or India ; and when he first 
touched America he imagined that he had reached 
India ; hence the terms retained to this day of the 
" West India islands." The prefix " West " was 
adopted after the mistake was discovered. It was 
owing to the same mistake that the term Indians 
was given to the aborigines of America. The truth 
is, the men of that day had no correct idea of the 
size of this planet, or of what an enormous propor- 
tion of it is covered with water — nearly three- 
fourths. 

The islands laid down on that then unknown 
ocean are all imaginary except England, Ireland, 
Iceland, the Azores, and a few others not far from 
the coast of Europe and Africa ; and even in that 
region there are some laid down which have no ex- 
istence. But when we get over toward Asia there 
are any number of them laid down — some quite 
large — not one of which has any real existence. 
The great island or continent of Australia is not 
laid down at all, neither is Borneo ; but where Aus- 
tralia ought to be there are six or seven large 
islands, some of which are named ; but not one cor- 
rect either in location or form. The Japanese 
islands are not laid down ; but there are numerous 
islands, one quite large, much more distant from 
the Asiatic coast than Japan is. Korea is not laid 
down at all. 

South of India we have the " Oceanicus Indicus 



A MAP OF THE WORLD, A.D. 1490. 93 

Orientalis "; but it is a much smaller body of water 
than the Indian Ocean ; for Africa is made to cut 
deep into it by a monstrous trend eastward. Mada- 
gascar is named ; but it is put altogether out of 
shape by a large peninsula running far eastward 
from its southeast corner. South of Madagascar is 
another island of equal size called Zanzibar. There 
is no such island there. The continent of Asia is 
made to run southward to the tropic of Capricorn, 
leaving the Indian Ocean almost an inland sea. 

The Red Sea is correctly located ; but it is about 
four times as wide as it really is, and is very crooked 
and irregular on its western shore. The Persian 
Gulf is laid down as an inland lake far larger than 
it ought to be, and stretching from east to west. 
The Mediterranean Sea is pretty correctly laid 
down. The Caspian Sea is given, with its greatest 
length east and west. It is too small, and has too 
many rivers flowing into it. The Black Sea and 
the Baltic are made to come too close together. 
Indeed all Europe seems to be compressed into a 
little corner, except that it is made to stretch almost 
to the North Pole. Great Britain and Ireland are 
given with a good deal of correctness as to size and 
form, which can not be said of France, Spain, and 
Italy. 

This was the utmost reach of geographical knowl- 
edge less than four hundred years ago. When 
Rome was at the zenith of its power, the people 
knew still less about the surface of this world, of 
which they boasted of being the masters. Those 
of Greece, with all their philosophy, knew still less. 
When Columbus proposed to reach India by sail- 



94 GATHERED SHEAVES. 

ing westward, some of the ecclesiastics of that day 
scouted at the idea — arguing that if he should sail 
on he would come to the end, the border, the edge 
of the world, or, as boys sometimes say, "thejump- 
ing-ofl-place." 




FORMER DAYS AND THESE. 

jIHERE are few things more interesting to a 
thoughtful mind than to note the develop- 
ment and growth of Christianity in the 
world from the time the reformers broke the shackles 
of more than a thousand years and gave to the 
Scriptures of Truth free course. This subject is 
to be investigated partly from printed history, from 
treatises on dogmatic theology more or less elabo- 
rate, from the controversies between the various 
sects which have sprung up, and from personal ob- 
servation running through a long life. As the 
writer has been a close observer during a period of 
more than sixty years — years the most active and 
progressive the Christian world ever saw — his tes- 
timony may be worthy of perusal by his younger 
brethren. 

The seventeenth and eighteenth centuries were 
remarkable for the depth of study of religious 
truth ; for building up of elaborate systems of the- 
ology ; for long, earnest, and sometimes heated 
controversy over dogmas which had in them far 
more of the wisdom of this world than of the spirit, 
the simplicity, and the gentleness of Christ. Ques- 
tions, the relative importance of which were like 
the mint, anise, and cummin of which the Saviour 
speaks, were earnestly discussed ; while the weight- 
ier matters of the law, judgment, mercy, and faith 

(95) 



g6 GATHERED SHEAVES. 

were not so much insisted upon. Yet in this way 
the generations then passing over the stage were 
led to think and talk much on religious subjects, 
and knowledge, even though cribbed and confined 
in narrow dogmatic bounds, was vastly increased. 
At the same time infidelity, bald, undisguised, and 
blasphemous, ran riot over the whole Christian 
world both Catholic and Protestant. 

Yet amid all this jarring oppugnancy among war- 
ring sects, this prevalence of every form of wicked- 
ness, this wave of unbelief which plunged France 
into a sea of blood and England into dead formal- 
ism, the Holy Spirit operated with such power on 
some hearts that our language was made rich in 
those undying songs of praise, and in innumerable 
devout writings, the influence of which is greater 
to-day than it was during the centuries in which 
they were produced. Watts, Cowper, Toplady, 
Newton, Charles Wesley, and a host of other hymn- 
ists, are better known to-day, and far more widely 
sung, than they were a hundred years ago. The 
Wesleys, Bunyan, Whitfield, the Tenants, Jonathan 
Edwards, and many other lesser lights, were instru- 
mental in the kindling of a spirit of devotion which 
to this day has not lost its power, nor will that 
spirit die out until the Gospel shall be proclaimed 
to every nation under heaven. 

This brings us to the beginning of the present 
century, and to men some of whom I knew. The 
first three years of the century were marked by a 
marvellous awakening which had some strange and 
peculiar features, but which was a genuine work of 
grace. It was like the stirring among the dry bones 



FORMER DAYS AND THESE. 97 

of which Ezekiel tells us, and a great army of active 
and working Christians was the result. Then a 
spirit of aggressive Christian work was inaugurated. 
The great commission of the Master, to go into all 
the world and preach the Gospel to every creature, 
was remembered and obeyed. Earnest men went 
abroad to carry the glad tidings to many peoples 
who had until then sat in darkness. The British 
and Foreign Bible Society and the American Bible 
Society were organized, which have given the 
Scriptures to the world in one language after an- 
other as fast as translations could be made. This 
work has gone on with ever increasing force until 
hundreds of millions of copies have been given in 
hundreds of languages to nearly every nation of 
earth. 

Well do I remember when the first missionaries 
went to the degraded savages of the Sandwich 
Islands amid the jeers of an unbelieving world ; 
while Henry Martyn, Carey, Judson, Newell, and 
others were laboring in India and the adjacent 
countries, and the Moravians were braving the 
rigors of the Greenland climate, and sharing in the 
toils of African slaves under the burning sun of the 
West India islands. For full sixty years I have 
watched this labor of love, this sore trial of faith, 
and have lived to see it successful in a measure 
which at first I little hoped to see in my day. 

Still, during the earlier years of this century the 
old warfare of the opposing sects was vigorously 
maintained by some men who occupied the home 
pulpits. Arminians poured their shot into the Cal- 
vinistic camps, which were just as vigorously re- 
7 



98 GATHERED SHEAVES. 

turned from the Calvinistic batteries. All this was 
done out of honest zeal for the truth as each party 
understood it. The main trouble was that neither 
of the parties quite understood the other. In their 
creeds they stood apart ; but in their prayers and 
songs of praise they ran together, and thus their as- 
perities gradually wore away until now they have 
in a good degree come to see eye to eye. 

This early breaking up of Protestant Christendom 
into a multitude of sects, while it was a bar to 
progress in the religious world, has not been an un- 
mixed evil. Had Christians been all of one mind 
dogmatically they would most likely have all gone 
to sleep together. Life is better than death, even 
if that life gives some of its energies to contention 
and strife. Our United Presbyterian brethren, for 
example, are full of life, true life, notwithstanding 
their present battle among themselves over instru- 
mental music. 

In those early times the pulpit was almost the 
only religious agency. There were no Sabbath- 
schools, no stated times for Christians to meet for 
prayer and conference. There was no religious 
press. Beyond the Bible and the Catechism there 
was but little Christian literature. The more ad- 
vanced families in means and intelligence had 
Scott's or Henry's Commentaries, and perhaps 
some volumes of sermons, all of which were good 
so far as they went. But there were no organized 
associations except in a few churches, for the spread 
of the Gospel either at home or abroad. But the 
foundations were nevertheless well laid ; and early 
in the present century the fruit which God's Word 



FORMER DAYS AND THESE. 99 

is sure to produce began to appear. The Bible and 
Tract Societies were established. Missions to the 
heathen world began and were pressed on with ever- 
increasing zeal. Sabbath-schools multiplied rapidly 
and soon became systematized in a national union. 
Religious papers made their first appearance in the 
second decade of the century. Earnest protests 
against the almost universal drinking usages of the 
people began to be uttered, and this sentiment took 
form in associations and in pledges of total absti- 
nence. In 1818 the General Assembly of the Pres- 
byterian Church gave out one of the most eloquent 
deliverances ever uttered against the system of Af- 
rican slavery, not only as a sin against God and 
man, but " a foul blot upon our national escutcheon." 
Although, for prudential reasons, hardly justifiable, 
the Church afterward softened its official protest, 
the righteousness and truth of that first utterance 
never ceased to press home upon the conscience 
of Christians. 

This new life and activity brought about a new 
state of things religiously. Christians of opposing 
sects flowed together and found that they were 
brethren, not enemies. Merely dogmatic contro- 
versy began to abate, and the pulpits changed from 
ecclesiastical batteries to fountains of essential, 
practical, and profitable truth. 

The Church of Christ is like a tree. It needs a 
sturdy trunk ; and the strong and rugged contro- 
versialists of the past two centuries were necessary 
to impart that strength. Now the fruit-bearing 
time has come. We still admire the stout and 
vigorous trunk ; but if we would please ourselves 



100 GATHERED SHEAVES. 

by gazing at or partaking of the fruit we must look 
for it among the slender twigs. With the steadily 
increasing intelligence which has been poured into 
the popular mind, less of strictly doctrinal or dog- 
matic preaching was needed ; and Christians were 
more and more called upon to show their faith by 
their works. Through more than threescore years 
I have watched this change with great satisfaction. 
" Say not thou," says Solomon, " what is the cause 
that the former days were better than these ? for thou 
dost not inquire wisely concerning this." That meets 
the case we are discussing exactly. Such questions 
are not wise. The former days were good days. 
They were days for foundation work, to use an 
architectural figure. They were necessary, more- 
over, to use another figure, for the vigorous growth 
of those strong trunks which, in later years, are be- 
ginning to bear much fruit, to the glory of Him 
who orders all things well. Everything is beautiful 
and useful in its season ; and when the fruit-bearing 
time is come our feelings are more gratified at the 
sight of richly laden branches than at that of the 
noble trunk out of which they spring — a trunk 
made strong by the buffetings of many a storm and 
many a winter. Antagonism is essential to develop- 
ment both in nature and in grace ; and that an- 
tagonism was found both in battling with outside 
infidelity and in the conflicting dogmas in the 
Church itself. Had there been no antagonism, no 
sectarian controversy, in the Christian world during 
the comparatively dark period succeeding the Ref- 
ormation, the whole Church might have sunk into 
lethargy and stagnation. That rough and militant 



FORMER DAYS AND THESE. IOI 

period was good in its season ; but it would not be 
good to bring it back again. 

But is the pulpit of the present day equal in 
power and efficiency to that of the seventeenth and 
eighteenth centuries? Certainly; and more so, be- 
cause it has in it more of the gentleness of Christ, 
more clear-sightedness to discern the comparative 
unimportance of questions which in former times 
set our good old zealous fathers by the ears. The 
warrior, bristling with arms and laden with armor, 
may look mightier than the husbandman who is 
plying his simpler and more useful implements. 
But is he greater? The truth is, you can not com- 
pare them ; and the wise man, therefore, speaks 
truly when he says, " Thou dost not inquire wisely 
concerning this." The Church, since the Reforma- 
tion, may be compared to Paul's Epistle to the 
Romans, the first eight or nine chapters of which 
are made up of the most vigorous doctrinal teach- 
ings, and then he goes off into the inculcation of 
the practical duties of life — the fruit, the applica- 
tion of these doctrines. Both are good, both es- 
sential ; and he would be an unwise man who 
should undertake to determine which is the better 
division. The Church — I mean that portion which 
we term evangelical — is now established in the first, 
and is pressing on to reap the fruit of those saving 
doctrines. Daniel was speaking of these later times 
when he wrote: " Many shall run to and fro, and 
knowledge shall be increased." 




THE ROOT OF ALL EVIL. 

j|HE words of the apostle found in I Tim. 
vi. 8-1 1 — especially verse 10 — ought to be 
seriously pondered just now. " The love 
of money," he says, " is the root of all evil ; which, 
while some coveted after, they have erred from the 
faith and pierced themselves through with many 
sorrows." The mind of Paul was divinely guided 
when he wrote these words, in which he denounces 
covetousness, or the love of money, as " the root 
of all evil." He does not say that this thing is 
merely an evil — one evil among many — but that it 
is the root of all evil. 

We all agree that intemperance is an evil. The 
best people of the age are battling with it vigor- 
ously, but not with that measure of success that we 
could wish. It seems to be too strong for them. 
We may ask, as Delilah asked Samson, " Wherein 
does its great strength lie?" It is not in the fond- 
ness of men for strong drink; but in the love of 
money. Clearly that is the root of this evil. It is 
that love which plants drinking-houses along our 
streets so thickly that the citizen is ashamed of 
them, even if he lays claim to no higher virtue than 
common decency. Men of low moral principle, 
men who regard money as the chief good, and 
therefore love it supremely, go into that injurious 
business, not because they think it right, but be- 
cause they see that there is money in it. With 

(102) 



THE ROOT OF ALL EVIL. IO3 

them the love of money is the master passion. 
Could we only subdue that debasing spring of 
action, the present public drinking usages of society 
would be prohibited by almost universal consent. 
Nay, the very men who engage in that low calling 
of catering to a depraved and ruinous appetite 
would quit it at once. Thus we see that this terrible 
evil has its root in covetousness, and is for that 
reason hard to overcome. 

But an evil greater than that of intemperance, 
one which springs from the same root, is now pre- 
vailing among us to an alarming extent — I mean 
the vice of gambling. It seems to be rapidly tak- 
ing possession of almost everything. Men of all 
classes and professions engage in it. Even the 
bread we eat, before it can pass from the hand of 
the producer to that of the consumer, is made to 
go through the opposing forces of what, in the 
brutal slang of the exchange, are termed " bulls " 
and " bears," and its price enhanced for their bene- 
fit. The oil which a bountiful Creator, in the far- 
gone ages of this planet, stored up for the benefit 
of the race, is also seized upon by gamblers and 
made the occasion of profit and loss and of incalcu- 
lable demoralization. The gigantic scenes of gam- 
bling in what are called " margins," the frenzy, 
the madness, the ever-changing fortunes of the 
operators in oil, or what represents oil, are but so 
many indexes of the fearful progress which this 
evil is making in our country. 

The regular and perpetual dealing in stocks and 
other securities — some of which, however, is per- 
fectly legitimate — which is carried on in all our 



104 GATHERED SHEAVES. 

cities is, for the most part, mere gambling, and ter- 
ribly injurious to those engaged, whether they win 
or lose. Where that business is carried on, the 
strong language of the prophet applies with awful 
force — "Truth is fallen in the street, and equity 
can not enter." Selfishness is raised to sevenfold 
intensity, and the hearts of men are hardened to 
the uttermost. 

Even the healthful recreations of social life have 
not escaped this insatiate monster. The invigorat- 
ing exercises of rowing or ball-playing can hardly 
be engaged in without the low and debasing ac- 
companiment of gambling. The speed of horses 
can not be tested without the passage of money 
from hand to hand. We can not choose men to 
office by our ballots without the element of gam- 
bling entering into the business in the form of bets. 
So prone, indeed, are some people to this vice that 
it can only with difficulty be kept out of our church 
fairs, where the greed of money, even for a good 
cause, overcomes the better principles of those who 
ought to be, and possibly are, Christians. There it 
takes the apparently harmless guise of some form 
of lottery, and is purely a game of chance. Still it 
is gambling and nothing else. 

What are called " corners " in any specific com 
modity, be it wheat or other grain, or pork, or oil, 
or some particular article in the grocery line, as 
coffee, tea, sugar — any one of such like commod- 
ities — have become alarmingly common. A ring 
of men who are able to command large masses of 
money conspire together to buy up all of the par- 
ticular commodity upon which they agree to oper- 



THE ROOT OF ALL EVIL. 105 

ate ; then, having swept the market, they force up 
the price upon all outside dealers and consumers, 
regardless of the distress of the poor, or of any- 
body's interests save their own. They may, if 
they have strength to handle the gigantic opera- 
tion, make enormous profits ; but if not, their losses 
may be correspondingly heavy. It is a hazardous 
game, and one of the meanest and most iniquitous 
that men can engage in. But such is the strength 
of avarice, when it is suffered to become the ruling 
passion, that no dangers can affright it, no consider- 
ations of honor, honesty, humanity, protest of con- 
science, or fear of God can stand before it. 

Milton, in his great epic of " Paradise Lost," in 
delineating the council of devils in the infernal re- 
gions, draws the individual characters of several of 
them. They are all bad enough ; but Mammon is 
portrayed as the lowest, the meanest, the most 
grovelling and sordid of the lot. That oil exchange 
in Pittsburgh, where not a few men recently pierced 
themselves through with many sorrows, and will 
probably continue to do so, is one of the temples 
where this detestable demon is worshipped. After 
witnessing one of those wild and frantic scenes re- 
cently enacted there, or reading accounts of them 
as given in the daily papers, how tremendously 
true and forcible do the words of Jesus come home 
to the heart — "Ye can not serve God and Mam- 
mon." 

But while contemplating these gross outbreakings 
of depravity under the impulse of this master pas- 
sion, let us not forget that the grip of avarice upon 
the purse — filled, it may be, with the proceeds of 



I Ob GATHERED SHEAVES. 

laborious industry or honorable trade — may be so 
tight as to deserve the contempt and execration 
not of good men only, but of the bad — but whose 
badness happens to be of a different type. The 
last, although he may be covetous, and perchance a 
gambler, a swindler, a forger, or even a thief, may 
be, on his low plane, free, and even generous in his 
expenditures ; while the other, although honest so 
far as strict legal right and wrong go, may hold on 
to his possessions with a grasp so tenacious as to 
bring him justly under the charge of being a parsi- 
monious person, a niggard, or even a miser. There 
is no shoot springing up from this root of all evil 
more deadly than this. No form of human deprav- 
ity is more hopeless. 

This last form of covetousness — which indeed is 
the very root itself — creeps insidiously into the 
character. A case of this deadly moral disease, 
which fell under my own observation, ended in 
one of the saddest of moral wrecks I ever knew. 
An intimate acquaintance with the man of whom I 
speak ran through a period of more than half a 
century. When I first knew him he had just gone 
into business on a very moderate capital. He was 
an intelligent, lively, and upright man, strictly tem- 
perate, and closely attentive to business. Being 
well read and of an intellectual turn, he was, while 
a young man, an agreeable and profitable compan- 
ion, and many a pleasant evening I spent in his 
company. In his business he had uninterrupted 
prosperity, so that in process of time his wealth 
amounted to hundreds of thousands. But his par- 
simony — hardly noticeable in early life— grew with 



THE ROOT OF ALL EVIL. 107 

his wealth, until at length he took no interest in 
anything except money. Heart and brain were 
alike shrivelled up by one all-absorbing passion. 
His well-invested means continued to accumulate ; 
yet at times he would distress himself with visions 
of impending poverty. For twenty-five years I 
watched the progress of this wretched moral malady, 
which grew more and more aggravated, until at 
about the age of seventy, death parted him and his 
treasures. He never pretended to be a Christian. 

This form of covetousness, this shoot from the 
root of all evil, although not as glaringly wicked as 
those found in gambling hells and at stock boards, 
is a lower and meaner vice than any of the others, 
and one more hopeless and incurable. This variety 
of the worshippers of Mammon can get into the 
Church. Many are there, and are fully persuaded 
that they have a right to be there. The faith upon 
which they build their hopes is merely their ortho- 
doxy. It is such people of whom Jesus speaks 
(Luke xiii. 26), who shall say : " Lord, Lord, open 

unto us We have eaten and drunk in Thy 

presence, and Thou hast taught in our streets." But 
in the judgment the Lord will say to such, " I know 
you not." True, their accepted creed said, " The 
chief end of man is to glorify God "; but the whole 
tenor of their lives said, " The chief end of man is 
to get money, to accumulate property, to make a 
fortune." These things, as every sensible man 
knows, are all right in their places ; but when they 
are suffered to become the chief end and aim in a 
man's life, then the Lord is dethroned and put into 
a subordinate place, to receive such attentions as 



108 GATHERED SHEAVES. 

will not interfere too much with the service of 
Mammon, their supreme lord. Hence the poor de- 
ceived creatures will flatter themselves that those 
little attentions which they paid to their divine 
Lord and Judge, by eating and drinking in His 
presence, and listening to His teachings, will be 
quite satisfactory to Him. This awful glimpse 
which our Lord has given us into the scenes be- 
yond death and the grave, and of the claims of Him 
who is the Judge of all either to the highest place 
in His people's hearts, or none, and of His stern de- 
nial of all who give Him a second place, ought to 
lead to deep searchings of heart. 




THE ANTIDOTE. 

J E have not been of those who have given 
notoriety to Col. Robert G. Ingersoll by 
publishing his blasphemies, or replying to 
his unsupported assertions, concerning the Bible. 
It was our strong conviction that in a very short 
time he himself would say what would do more to 
weaken and destroy his influence than could be said 
by any of his opponents, and in this we have not 
been mistaken. 

The address at the funeral of his brother, a short 
time ago, has been more widely published and com- 
mented upon than anything which that brilliant 
and self-sufficient atheist has ever uttered. The 
most striking comment that has been made upon 
it was in one of the New York daily papers, by 
placing Ingersoll's address and a large portion of 
the fifteenth chapter of Paul's first Epistle to the 
Corinthians in parallel columns, and then appending 
the brief and pregnant question : " Which do you 
prefer?" Nothing that man could say could be 
more apposite or impressive than this. The ex- 
tremes of glory and gloom, of hope and despair, of 
life and death, are thus placed before the eye of the 
reader in startling contrast — the gloom, the derpair, 
the blackness of darkness, clothed in as beautiful 
garb as human genius ever threw around them, and 
are only made the more sad and appalling by that 
beauty. 

(109) 



IIO GATHERED SHEAVES. 

It is this awful absence of all to which human 
hearts would fain cling when " the world recedes 
and disappears," which gives to this eloquent wail — - 
a wail which the soul of a God-forsaken man can not 
help but give out— that which makes this strange ut- 
terance of a far-famed blasphemer one of incalculable 
value. As the Lord put words into the mouth of 
the wicked Balaam, and constrained him to depict 
in strains of unsurpassed eloquence the glory of 
that people whose God is the Lord, so this gifted 
man seemed to have been constrained to portray, 
in colors as dark as Balaam's were bright, the fearful 
gloom of those who deny God's truth and blaspheme 
His name. Hear him : " Life is a narrow vaie be- 
tween the cold and barren peaks of two eternities. 
We strive in vain to look beyond the heights. We 
cry aloud, and the only answer is the echo of our 
wailing cry." What can be more appalling than 
this? If any words that man could utter would 
suffice to chill the hearts of the unthinking multi- 
tudes who have been applauding the disgusting 
blasphemies of this popular lecturer, and put them 
to silence, these, we should suppose, would suffice. 
If thought could be awakened at all in such minds, 
the first inquiry that would suggest itself would be : 
" Is that all your boasted philosophy can offer us 
in the place of that faith which you would have us 
despise and repudiate as a worn-out superstition? 
Can you give us nothing but an empty echo of our 
own wailing cry?" Ingersoll has been constrained 
by the pressure of a great sorrow to echo that cry 
in tones so unspeakably sad that they will rever- 
berate through all the earth, and awaken thought 



THE ANTIDOTE. Ill 

and apprehension in many a vain and giddy soul. 
It is well that the solemn circumstances in which 
the orator was placed pressed from his lips that 
strange address — so sincere, so sad, so hopeless, so 
unlike his other utterances, where, in the pride of 
what he calls science, in the vainglory of his intel- 
lectual gifts, and inflated with the laughter and ap- 
plause of fools, he belched out his coarse ribaldry 
at that which all good men revere as sacred. He 
has in that brief utterance furnished the best anti- 
dote for his own poison that we can hope to find. 

David uttered no wailing cry when he contem- 
plated the valley of the shadow of death, but looked 
down into it with sweet composure and even with 
joy, as he said to his God : " I will fear no evil ; for 
Thou art with me, Thy rod and Thy staff they com- 
fort me." And then, stretching his vision of faith 
beyond the shadowy valley, he exultantly cries : 
" I will dwell in the house of the Lord forever." 
Compare these utterances of sure and steadfast 
faith with Ingersoll's "cold and barren peaks of two 
eternities," if you would see the difference between 
faith and unbelief. 

" Which do you prefer? " 




SCRIPTURE REVISION .* 

|NGLISH-SPEAKING Christians through- 
out the world are becoming more and 
more interested in the work of the asso- 
ciation of learned men of both Great Britain and 
America now engaged in a revision of the received 
translation of the Holy Scriptures into the English 
tongue. It is a work of transcendent importance ; 
for while it will make no change in the sense of the 
sacred oracles, we have every reason to hope that 
their study will be made clearer and easier to the 
common reader. 

At the time when our present accepted transla- 
tion was made, under the auspices of King James 
of England, and which was completed and pub- 
lished in i6it, there were other versions in exist- 
ence and in the hands of the people, with which 
the conservatives of the seventeenth century were 
well satisfied. Some people at that day protested 
against the work, as some do now. Of these ob- 
jectors the translators speak in their address to 
" the Reader " in terms as quaint as they are severe, 
a few words of which I quote : 

" Many men's mouths have been opened a good 
while (and yet are not stopped) with speeches 
about the translation so long in hand, or rather 
perusal of translations made before ; and ask what 
may be the reason, what the necessity of the em- 



* Written before the Revised Version appeared. 
(112) 



SCRIPTURE REVISION. 113 

ployment. Hath the Church been deceived, say 
they, all this while? Hath her sweet bread been 
mingled with leaven, her silver with dross, her wine 
with water, her milk with lime? .... We had 
hoped [the objectors are made to say] that we had 
been in the right way, that we had had the Oracles 
of God delivered unto us ; and that though all the 
world had cause to be offended and to complain, yet 
that we had none." 

The translations here spoken of, and with which 
many at that day (270 years ago) were well satisfied, 
were such as could hardly be understood by the 
people of the present day, just as Wickliffe's trans- 
lation, made in the fourteenth century, would have 
been hardly intelligible to the English people of 
the seventeenth centuiy. Many words used by 
Wickliffe had become obsolete, many new words 
had come in, while many others had changed their 
meaning. It is true that Wickliffe's translation was 
not in use in the beginning of the seventeenth cen- 
tury ; but no translation then existing was satis- 
factory. William Tyndale published his translation 
of the New Testament in 1526, being the first that 
ever was printed in the English language. Soon 
after Tyndale's death, his translation of the Old 
Testament was finished and corrected by John 
Rogers, the martyr. It was printed at Hamburg. 
Another translation was made by a number of 
learned exiles from England under the reign of 
Mary, and printed in Geneva. This was much 
valued by the Puritans, but was not acceptable to 
the Bishops, who made a new one of their own, 
called the " Bishops' Bible." 



1 14 GATHERED SHEAVES. 

This was the state of things when King James I., 
who liked neither the Genevan nor the Bishops' 
translation, appointed fifty-four learned men to 
make a new translation from the original tongues. 
They met at Oxford, Cambridge, and Westminster 
during their long session, which began in 1607 and 
ended in 161 1, when their work was given to the 
public through the press. From that day to this 
that translation has been the standard version, ac- 
ceptable to all denominations of Christians. Mill- 
ions upon millions of copies have been published, 
and its words, in quotations, permeate all the re- 
ligious literature of the English-speaking world. 
No book was ever so entrenched in human hearts 
as this ; and it is no wonder that the present work 
of giving it a revising touch excites some degree of 
alarm and jealousy. 

But during the long period of 270 years our lan- 
guage has undergone a good deal of change. Some 
words have, by universal usage, changed their 
meaning to the very opposite, for example the 
word prevent as found in 1 Thess. iv. 15 — "We 
which are alive and remain until the coming of the 
Lord shall not preveiit them which are asleep." 
Now the meaning of the word here is go before, 
which is the true etymological meaning ; but as we 
use it, it means to hinder, to stop, to intercept. 
The same word is used in the Bible sense in Ps. 
cxix. 148, and in Ps. lix. 10 it is used in a some-* 
what different sense. The word let is another. In 

2 Thess. ii. 7, it is used in this sense: "Only He 
who now letteth will let, until He be taken out of 
the way." Here the meaning is to retard, to hinder, 



SCRIPTURE REVISION. 1 1 5 

to impede, to interpose obstructions. This sense 
is now practically obsolete. As we use it, it means 
to permit, to suffer, to interpose no obstructions or 
hindrances, and in this sense it is often used in the 
Scriptures, as in Exodus — " Let my people go." 
" I will not let you go." This double and opposite 
meaning of that little word shows us that our lan- 
guage was still in a transition state at the time of 
which we are speaking. There are some other 
words in the Bible that have become obsolete 
everywhere else, and some the meanings of which 
do not convey quite the same idea to us that they 
did to the people of the seventeenth century. This 
is true of the word conversation which occurs so 
frequently in the epistles, especially those of Paul. 
At the time when the Bible was translated the 
meaning and acceptation of the word was, accord- 
ing to Webster, " General course of manners ; be- 
havior ; deportment, especially as it respects mor- 
als "; but he remarks that the word in this sense is 
now nearly obsolete. To the reader of the seven- 
teenth century the exhortation, " Let your conver- 
sation be without covetousness," would be correctly 
understood as applying to the life, the conduct, the 
character of the party addressed, and as opposed to 
greed and selfishness whether in heart or conduct. 
But in later years the word has come to have a 
much more restricted meaning, simply that of fa- 
miliar discourse, chat, talk. Were we to bring that 
translation into harmony with present usages we 
would have to say, " Let your talk be without 
covetousness," which would strike every ear as rank 
nonsense. Twenty times does the word occur in 



Il6 GATHERED SHEAVES. 

the Bible, and in every instance it has that old and 
obsolete definition quoted above. In not a single 
case is the word used as we use it, but solely in the 
old and discarded sense just mentioned. Had the 
word meant in 1611 what we make it mean, the 
question of the risen Lord to the two men on 
the road to Emmaus would have been translated, 
" What manner of conversation is this that ye have 
one with another as ye walk and are sad?" for 
the intercourse of two men walking together 
would be conversation in the strictest sense of the 
word as it is now understood and used (see Luke 
xxiv. 17). 

The translators of the authorized version sup- 
plied too many words, which are printed in italics, 
and which often weaken the beauty and force of 
the text. Take, for example, the third verse of the 
Hundredth Psalm as it reads by dropping the sup- 
plied words, and also in connection with the mar- 
ginal reading : " Know ye that the Lord He is 
God ; He hath made us, and His we are, His peo- 
ple, and the sheep of His pasture/' In our version 
it reads : " Know ye that the Lord He is God ; it 
is He that hath made us, and not we ourselves ; we 
are His people, and the sheep of His pasture." I 
shall cite but a single example from the New Tes- 
tament. Paul, in i Cor. xv., is speaking of the de- 
grees of glory in the resurrection, and in the forty- 
first verse says: " Star differeth from star in glory"; 
but our translators, for the sake of precision, sup- 
plied two words — " One star differeth from another 
star in glory." Compare the two readings, and see 
how the supplied words detract from the grandeur 



SCRIPTURE REVISION. 1 1 7 

of the illustration. But as I do not pretend to be 
a Biblical critic, I shall pursue this point no fur- 
ther. 

Let it be borne in mind that this is not so much 
a new translation as a revision of the old one, that 
it is made in the light of several ancient manu- 
scripts which were unknown to the former trans- 
lators, and also that it will bring the sacred text 
into harmony with our language in its present ad- 
vanced and perfected state. Nothing more. Were 
the new version divided into chapters and verses, 
as the old is, it would require a pretty close Bible- 
student to distinguish the one from the other. Still 
thousands of the present generation will main- 
tain that " the old is better," and will cling to it, 
while others will welcome the new, because it will 
be clearer, more in harmony with the original, and 
with our own language as it is now understood 
and used. 

Another great benefit will result from this work. 
Thousands who now study the sacred oracles very 
little, and very superficially, will be led to read 
them carefully and to compare them one with the 
other, and thus become well read in the Scriptures. 
It will, it is true, be the old Book, and yet it will 
seem to be a new one. In this way, slowly but 
surely, the new will supplant the old. 

The innumerable references and quotations made 
in thousands of religious books, and in elaborate 
concordances, will require, nay, demand editions of 
the revised Bible with the old divisions into chap- 
ters and verses, faulty as many of them are. The 
revised Scriptures will doubtless be published both 



Il8 GATHERED SHEAVES. 

ways — in subjects and paragraphs, and also in chap- 
ters and verses. 

Christians ought to be glad that this great work 
is going on and is nearly completed ; for they will 
see, when they come to examine the revised Bible, 
that no historical part is altered, no doctrine shaken, 
no promise shorn of its consolation and glory. 




UP AND DOWN. 

j]OPEFULNESS and despondency are often 
constitutional conditions, not dependent 
upon spiritual so much as upon physical 
causes — more upon a healthy or unhealthy condi- 
tion of the spleen than upon anything else. We 
read of some eminent Christians who at times suf- 
fered greatly from despondency, even to utter hope- 
lessness. The poet Cowper was a remarkable ex- 
ample of this. In his case it was hypochondriasis 
to the verge of insanity. Indeed for some time in 
his earlier life he was insane. But his beautifully 
devout spirit was not greatly affected ; for he con- 
tinued to love and worship his God even when he 
believed himself to be a castaway, and he never 
ceased to be gentle, kind, and amiable to those with 
whom he was associated. He was in this hopeless 
state when Mrs. Unwin, with whom he lived so 
long, in order to rouse him from his chronic melan- 
choly, asked him to write her a humorous poem, 
telling in her own language the story of Gilpin's 
ride. A short time afterward he handed her " John 
Gilpin," a poem which for rich, quaint, and innocent 
humor and drollery has perhaps no equal in the 
English language. At another time, when the clouds 
were breaking away, he wrote that grandest of our 
sacred songs, beginning: 

(119) 



120 GATHERED SHEAVES. 

" God moves in a mysterious way 
His wonders to perform ; 
He plants His footsteps in the sea, 
And rides upon the storm." 

But in his case the darkness and storm passed 
away, and one of the last things he wrote was that 
sweet lyric now found in all our best collections : 

"To Jesus, the crown of my hope, 
My soul is in haste to be gone." 

But the long, dark, sorrowful, and almost hopeless 
way through which it pleased God to lead Cowper, 
probably made him a better and more useful Chris- 
tian than he could otherwise have been. 

A disordered spleen, or a stomach which does not 
perform its functions properly, has the effect, where 
Christian grace is absent, to render the subject of it 
cross and ill-natured, in some cases gloomy and 
hopeless ; in others, peevish, fretful, and splenetic. 
It is a disease of the physical organism which affects 
the mind in a remarkable degree. A poet writes : 

" You humor me when I am sick : 
Why not when I'm splenetic ? " 

And so we ought. We should always make allow- 
ance for friends thus afflicted. That is a sweet and 
consolatory assurance we have in the 103d Psalm, 
where it is said of the Lord, " He knoweth our 
frame ; He remembereth that we are dust." Where- 
fore, let all who are in the dark comfort themselves 
with these words. 

There are few better tests of Christian character 
than this, that the soul will still cling to God with 



UP AND DOWN. 121 

love and devotion even when unable to rejoice in 
hope. This Cowper and many others have done, 
and been borne through their Valleys of Humilia- 
tion, and have passed over to a better world in joy 
and triumph. 

A distinguished minister and educator was 
strangely subject to ups and downs in his Christian 
experience. At one time he would be bright and 
full of joy, so much so that he would astonish his 
friends with his exuberant playfulness, while at 
other times his devotion was so fervent that he 
seemed more like an angel than a man. Few la- 
bored more earnestly for the salvation of others 
than he, and few accomplished more good. Yet 
he was subject to fits of despondency to such a de- 
gree that he lost all hope of his own salvation. Then 
he would be very miserable. Once, while under 
this sombre cloud, he had occasion to go to a dis- 
tant city. While there he called upon a brother 
minister, a man zealous and faithful, but who was 
noted for his buoyancy of spirit and facetiousness. 
At once the beclouded and distressed old man be- 
gan to tell his friend of his hopeless state — that for 
him there was no salvation. The other sat and lis- 
tened without remark until the doleful complaint 
was ended. Then he began to laugh. 

" Why, my dear brother," said the afflicted man, 
"what do you find in this to excite laughter?" 
" Well, doctor," said the other, " I was just think- 
ing what a funny scene there will be when you and 
the devil meet." 

He then fixed his eyes upon the door and began 
to personify his satanic majesty as he sat upon his 



122 GATHERED SHEAVES. 

dark throne. Addressing some imaginary messen- 
gers, who had just come in from a raid, he asked in 
a stern voice: "Who have you got there?" The 
name was given. " Didn't he live in such a town ? " 
naming it. "Yes." " Is not he the man who per- 
suaded so many people to quit my service and be- 
come Christians?" "Yes." "And induced so 
many to give up drinking and become sober men ? " 
"Yes." "And was so active in getting up prayer- 
meetings and revivals, and in fact spending his 
whole life in doing damage to my kingdom?" 
"Yes." "Take him away! take him away! we 
can't have him here ! It would never do at all ! 
Why, he would turn everything upside down ! " 

So admirable was the acting that the despairing 
man was constrained to join in the laugh. The 
utter groundlessness of his despondency was made 
so apparent that hope sprang up at once, and he 
left the house a happy man. 



SORROW— JOY. 

TOjPgfOST people regard these two states, or emo- 
IrV/l E tions, as opposites ; that when one is pres- 
■&ag*a] ent the other must necessarily be absent. 
Ikit this is an error so far as a true Christian is con- 
cerned. The joys and sorrows of the world, it is 
true, are not and can not be conjoined, for both 
work death. The mere worldling has a measure of 
joy, such as it is, in the success of his enterprises ; 
so has the gambler when he wins his antagonist's 
money, and so has the devotee of pleasure while 
indulging in it. Yet such joy as this does not come 
within the purview of this discussion. 

The prophet says of our Saviour that " He was 
a man of sorrows"; and He Himself asks by the 
mouth of another prophet, " Is there any sorrow 
like unto my sorrow ? " No sorrow was ever so 
deep and poignant as His. John, in his twelfth 
chapter, relates an incident which to my mind is 
exceedingly touching. The passage is brief and I 
shall quote it. I think Jesus had for a time stopped 
speaking, and was thinking of the fearful suffering 
which was just before Him. Then He exclaimed, 
" Now is my soul troubled, and what shall I say ? 
Father, save me from this hour. But for this cause 
came I unto this hour." Then, rising higher, He 
exclaimed, " Father, glorify Thy name ! " Instantly 
the Father answered in an audible voice, saying, 

(123) 



124 GATHERED SHEAVES. 

" I have both glorified it and will glorify it again." 
Jesus then turned to His disciples and said, " This 
voice came not because of me, but for your sakes." 
He needed no audible voice ; for the Father, with- 
out removing the cause of His anguish, poured 
into His soul such a flood of joy that the sorrow, 
terrible as it was, was swallowed up. He showed 
to Him the travail of His soul and He was satis- 
fied. Then He spoke in the hearing of His dis- 
ciples again, but in a very different tone : " Now is 
the judgment of this world ; now shall the prince 
of this world be cast out ; and I, if I be lifted up 
from the earth, will draw all men unto me." Just 
for a moment as it were He had been overwhelmed 
with sorrow ; but that sorrow had quickly been 
turned into joy — a measure of joy of which none 
but Himself was capable — a joy vast, immeasura- 
ble, infinite. In Gethsemane He fell for a little 
while under this awful cloud of horror again. But 
there again He overcame by meek submission to 
His Father's will ; and when the band led by Judas 
found Him He was as calm and resolute as ever, 
and with sublime composure delivered Himself a 
prisoner into the hands of His murderers. Had 
He any joy mingled with that bitter cup? Un- 
questionably. He was sustained by the view of the 
joy that was set before Him and enabled to endure 
the cross and despise the shame. It was love that 
sustained Him all the way through His life of sor- 
row and His death of agony; and where love is, 
there must be joy. He was, it is true, "a man of 
sorrows and acquainted with grief"; but He was 
never wretched. " Lo, I come," is His joyful shout 



SORROW — JOY. 125 

as given by a prophet ; " in the volume of the book 
it is written of me ; I delight to do Thy will, O 
my God." By another sacred writer He says He 
rejoiced in the habitable part of the earth, and His 
delights were with the sons of men (Proverbs viii. 
31). Of Jesus it is true, as it is of the weakest and 
humblest of His people, that His afflictions — I 
shall not dare to call them light — worked for Him 
a far more exceeding and eternal weight of glory. 
He was " made perfect through suffering." 

Sorrow, so far from being an evil, when it comes 
from God's hand, is, I believe, an essential element 
in the highest joy. Even the Eternal Father Him- 
self uses the language of sorrow in speaking of the 
folly and waywardness of His people. Hear these 
pathetic words : " O that they were wise, that they 
understood this, that they would consider their lat- 
ter end ! " Dare we say that He did not feel the 
sorrow which this language expresses? Yet we 
never doubt but that His condition is one of in- 
finite blessedness. And dare we imagine for a mo- 
ment that He had no sorrow, no suffering, when 
He laid upon His beloved Son the iniquity of us 
all? 

So it is, or so it ought to be, in the experience 
of believers on earth. For my own part I can tes- 
tify that the highest and sweetest joy that I was 
ever favored with was in the midst of the darkest 
adversity, so far as worldly interests were concerned. 
Many years ago I heard for the first time the simple 
but triumphant lyric, beginning — 

" Oh ! sing to me of Heaven, 
When I am called to die ! " 



126 GATHERED SHEAVES. 

The singer was a minister of one of the branches 
of the Methodist Church. He had a rich, full, and 
impressive voice. The refrain ran thus as he gave it : 

" There'll be no more sorrow there, 
There'll be no more sorrow there ; 

In Heaven above, where all is love, 
There'll be no more sorrow there." 

Is that true? Will there "be no more sorrow 
there " ? were questions that arose to my mind. I 
did not like it ; for my own experience had led me 
to regard sorrow as an essential element in the 
highest joy. Even penitential sorrow is one of the 
sweetest things in the experience of a true believer 
who knows that for him there is now no condemna- 
tion. A friend once called upon a good man who 
was drawing near to death, and found him weeping. 
He was asked if it was a sense of sin that was dis- 
tressing him. " No," said he, " I do not weep be- 
cause I have sinned, but because I know that my 
sins are forgiven." His were tears of joy ; yet the 
element of sorrow was not absent. . I am inclined 
to think that the redeemed sinner, when he gets to 
Heaven and sees those hands which still bear the 
scars of Calvary, will feel very much inclined to 
weep, and that the more he feels so the happier he 
will be. 

To my mind it were an outrage upon the moral 
character of holy angels to suppose that their songs 
of joy were not suspended during those awful hours 
during which Jesus bore the wrath of God due to 
the sinners whose redemption He purchased with 
His agony and death. But what a compensation 



SORROW — JOY. 127 

they had when they saw the glorious consumma- 
tion of that awful conflict, and saw how their and 
our glorious King was made perfect through suffer- 
ing ! 

Sorrow and joy are mutual antagonists in one 
sense; yet in another and higher sense they are 
both essential to the highest degree of blessedness. 
Antagonism is essential to development in both 
nature and grace — in heaven as well as upon earth. 
But what is sorrow? We have seen that it may be 
conjoined with the strongest faith and the most ec- 
static joy. It may also be combined with the low- 
est and most sinful passions, even with doubt, dark- 
ness, despair, and wretchedness — with loss of friends, 
loss of property, loss of character. But all these, 
and many more forms of sorrow, are nothing more 
than what the apostle calls the sorrow of the world. 
But when combined with faith and full persuasion 
of the love of God, and accepted as one expression 
of that love, the whole nature of sorrow is changed. 
That which was dark becomes bright ; that which 
was crushing us down is made to lift us up as noth- 
ing else can. A poet expresses this thought beau- 
tifully in these lines : 

" Sorrow, touched by Thee, grows bright 
With more than rapture's ray ; 
As darkness shows us worlds of light 
We never saw by day." 




ORIGIN OF LYTE'S HYMN, "ABIDE 
WITH ME." 

jIBOUT forty years ago, Wilson, in his 
" Noctes Ambrosianae," says: " Have you 
seen a little volume, entitled ' Tales in 
Verse,' by Rev. H. F. Lyte, which seems to have 
reached a second edition ? Now that is the right 
kind of religious poetry." And the Christian world 
has unanimously agreed that Wilson was right. No 
finer religious poetry has ever been given to the 
world, or poetry that was more uplifting in its every 
line, than that of the obscure country rector — ob- 
scure while living, but famous since his death. He 
was born of gentle blood, at Kelso, in June, 1793, 
but, owing to narrow means, was compelled to strug- 
gle hard for his education. He graduated from his 
studies with honor, however, but settled down into 
a " dreary Irish curacy," where he toiled until com- 
pelled by ill health to resign. He finally settled in 
Brixham, where he toiled for twenty years, under 
many a cloud of pastoral difficulty and discourage- 
ment. While here he wrote the beautiful hymn 
which is known by all Christians, of whatever de- 
nomination. It contains eight verses, of which 
we quote two below. The first line will recall the 
whole : 

" Abide with me ! Fast falls the eventide." 

This hymn was the last poetic utterance of Lyte, 
written as the shadows of the dark valley were 
(128) 



ORIGIN OF THE HYMN, "ABIDE WITH ME. 1 29 

closing his labors on earth. Though he was, as he 
says, scarcely " able to crawl," he made one more 
attempt to preach and to administer the Holy Com- 
munion. " O brethren ! " said he, " I can speak feel- 
ingly, experimentally, on this point ; and I stand be- 
fore you seasonably to-day, as alive from the dead, 
if I may hope to impress it upon you, and induce 
you to prepare for that solemn hour which must 
come to all, by a timely acquaintance with, appreci- 
ation of, and a dependence on the death of Christ." 
Many tearful eyes witnessed the distribution of the 
sacred elements, as given out by one who was al- 
ready standing with one foot in the grave. Having 
given, with his dying breath, a last adieu to his sur- 
rounding flock, he retired to his chamber, fully aware 
of his near approach to the end of time. As the even- 
ing of the sad day gathered its darkness, he handed 
to a near and dear relative this immortal hymn, 
with music accompanying, which he had prepared : 

"Abide with me ! Fast falls the eventide : 

The darkness deepens ; Lord, with me abide ! 
When other helpers fail, and comforts flee, 
Help of the helpless, oh, abide with me ! 

" Swift to its close ebbs out life's little day ; 

Earth's joys grow dim, its glories pass away; 
Change and decay on all around I see ; 

O Thou, who changest not, abide with me!" 

The Master did abide with him the few more 
days he spent on earth. His end is described as 
that of "the happy Christian poet, singing while 
strength lasted"; and while entering the dark val- 
ley, pointing upward with smiling countenance he 
whispered : " Peace, joy." 
9 




THE BLESSINGS OF POVERTY. 

" Sweet are the uses of adversity." — Shakespeare. 

jiET no one imagine that there is any ben- 
efit, or blessing, or merit in poverty itself, 
apart from divine grace. It is a trial, an 
affliction, a test of character. Like all other afflic- 
tions it is only a blessing to those who are properly 
exercised thereby. If it is borne with cheerful, 
thankful, unmurmuring resignation, and if it begets 
a trust in the promises of God to the poor, then it 
enstamps the likeness of Jesus upon the soul, and 
fills it with joy and peace. But if the lack of the 
good things of this life causes impatience, or mur- 
muring, or distrust, or envy, or selfishness, or covet- 
ousness, then its effect is to mar at least, if not to- 
tally obliterate, the image of Christ. Yet this con- 
dition, which is so common, is probably the best 
that the Lord can lay upon us. The opposite con- 
dition of wealth is more perilous. Jesus Himself 
tells us so. To some He gives more, to others less — 
to all as much as is good for them. To the poorest 
His promise is, that they that trust in Him shall 
not want any good thing. Hence it is that the ab- 
sence of wealth brings us nearer to God, and brings 
into perpetual exercise this every-day faith, this 
trusting spirit, this ever-present feeling of depend- 
ence, and enstamps the likeness of Jesus upon the 
spirit, as few other exercises can, thus making the 
(130) 



THE BLESSINGS OF POVERTY. 131 

poor, as James expresses it, rich in faith. Abject 
poverty, absolute destitution, is impossible to such 
as exercise this steady trust in the word of Him 
who said : " Your Heavenly Father knoweth that 
ye have need of all these things." The more we 
trust in the Lord for what is needful for us just 
now, the more we shall grow into the likeness of 
our Lord, and the greater shall we become in the 
kingdom of heaven. 




THOUGHTS FOR THE AGED. 

FEEL inclined to have a little familiar talk 
with my aged friends who are able to give 
a good reason for the hope that is in them — 
people who, like myself, are near the end of their 
earthly pilgrimage. I shall not say near to death, 
or near the end of life, for that is not a correct way 
of expressing it ; for Jesus most emphatically de- 
clares that " he that liveth and believeth in me shall 
never die." " I give unto them eternal life," He 
says again. He does not say that He will give it, 
but that He has already given it. They can not 
perish ; for them there is no condemnation. So far 
as they are concerned death is swallowed up in vic- 
tory. The laying down of this earthly tabernacle 
in the grave for a little while is only a part of that 
grand process which infinite wisdom and goodness 
chose to bring His dearly bought children to the 
ineffable honor of being made His sons and daugh- 
ters, and the brethren of "their divine Redeemer. 

The inspired Scriptures speak of " the spirits of 
just men made perfect " — men whose bodies are still 
mouldering in the dust — and Paul speaks in easy 
and familiar terms of being " absent from the body 
and present with the Lord." The dying Stephen 
prayed, " Lord Jesus, receive my spirit," and then 
immediately, as the sacred historian expresses it, 
" fell asleep" after uttering with his expiring breath 
(132) 



THOUGHTS FOR THE AGED. 1 33 

a prayer for his murderers. No believer has a 
shadow of a doubt that the Lord Jesus did receive 
Stephen's spirit, and that he is now present with 
the Lord, in the enjoyment of a life vastly higher 
and "far better" than the life he had in the flesh, 
good and happy as that was. Still, united to Christ, 
his body will " rest in the grave until the resurrec- 
tion," as our Catechism beautifully expresses it, and 
then he will rise yet another step, and come into a 
state of full salvation. 

We can not, without a violation of all that is 
beautiful and true, joyful and triumphant, invest 
such a departure as that — tragic as it was to the 
eye of sense — with the habiliments of woe and call 
it death. Stephen did not die. It pleased his Lord 
to give him a crown of martyrdom, and an illus- 
trious record on earth as one of His witnesses, and 
also a crown of righteousness in heaven. 

Yet Stephen had only the same faith that is open 
and free to every one of us, and the same mercy 
which carried him through will take us through 
and enable us to say as he did, " Lord Jesus, receive 
my spirit ! " He was a redeemed sinner like us > 
and had the same infirmities. Why, then, can not 
all Christians view their own departure from this 
short, sinful, suffering life in the light which shines 
so beautifully in that of the good deacon of whom 
we have been speaking? Our Saviour did all He 
could to scatter the gloom which, in the mere light 
of nature, hangs around our departure from this 
life ; and in the narrative He has given us of the 
martyrdom of Stephen He sets before us an ex- 
ample of one Christian departing to his everlasting 



134 GATHERED SHEAVES. 

home in all the triumph of continued and aug- 
mented life. 

Now, dear old friends, let us bring the matter 
home to ourselves, for the time of our departure is 
at hand. Why can not we be glad .of it ? Why 
can not we desire, as Paul did, to depart and be 
with Christ ? Some can and do desire it, and look 
forward to " that day " as the most desirable of any 
that lies before them ; while at the same time 
they patiently wait for it as Job did. Why is it 
so? 

We know that there is implanted in our nature 
for a wise purpose an instinctive dread of death, 
and that the desire to prolong our mortal life is in 
its place a good desire. That is one reason why 
we invest death with gloom and prefer not even to 
think about it. Another is doubt as to what may 
follow. This is a condition in which no believer 
should remain contentedly for a single day. The 
apostle enjoins it upon Christians to make their 
calling and election sure ; and he tells us how this 
is done — " The Spirit itself beareth witness with 
our spirit that we are the children of God." Noth- 
ing short of this can overcome the fear of death, 
and nothing short of this can enable us to live 
Christian lives. Resting on Christ alone for sal- 
vation is the only real foundation of Christian 
life. 

Paul speaks of some in his day who, through fear 
of death, were all their lifetime subject to bondage. 
A true Christian may be in that state; but it is 
one that is as dishonoring to Christ as it is injuri- 
ous to himself. 



THOUGHTS FOR THE AGED. 1 35 

" Oh ! could we make our doubts remove, 

Those gloomy doubts that rise, 
And see the Canaan that we love 

With unbeclouded eyes ; 
Could we but climb where Moses stood, 

And view the landscape o'er, 
Not Jordan's stream nor Death's cold flood 

Should fright us from the shore." 

In a recent article I said that in very early life it 
was strongly impressed upon my mind that I was 
in some way to be highly favored. I think it was 
a true impression, and in no way has it been more 
signally realized than in an entire freedom from the 
fear of death. There was nothing I more enjoyed, 
and nothing that I oftener indulged in, than the 
thought of departing from this life to a better. 
This has with me been an abiding state for nearly 
seventy years. While still in early boyhood I have 
laid my head on my pillow and thought how de- 
lightful it would be if I could sleep the sleep that 
knows no waking in this world. It was not a mor- 
bid state of mind ; for no boy was more cheerful 
than I, or enjoyed life better. It was the pure and 
sinless life of a better world that 1 longed for. 1 
was not weary of this world ; but in the reckless 
buoyancy of youth I felt that my life was not what 
it ought to be. In heaven it would be. When 
about entering manhood my health gave way for 
several months, so that I supposed that the time of 
my departure was at hand. Never during a long 
and by no means unhappy life have I experienced 
such thrilling joy as while I was under that im- 
pression. That was sixty years ago ; and ever since, 



136 GATHERED SHEAVES. 

when I wish to form a conception of the joys of 
heaven, memory goes back to that experience. 
But restored health gave me an intimation that I 
was turned back. I felt some measure of disap- . 
pointment ; but that was wrong, for now I know 
that my joy had too much of the element of selfish- 
ness in it ; although my hope was well grounded. 
Now I thank God that He has permitted me to 
live as long as I have lived. It is well. Still the 
memory of that short and happy period has been a 
treasure to me all my life, and is yet. 

Pardon me for telling so much of my own per- 
sonal experience. But it is what any one who 
clings to Christ alone for salvation can easily attain 
to. When the Christian can do that, he knows that 
he is in Christ Jesus, and that for him there is no 
condemnation (Rom. viii. 1). It is of the nature 
of unbelief for him to allow his sins to obscure that 
glorious hope which he is permitted to entertain. 

I have now lived a little over fourscore years, 
and enjoy life as well as ever. Often I think of the 
multitude of dear friends whom I knew and loved 
who have gone over before me, and feel how glad 
we shall be to meet each other again. That friends 
will recognize each other over there I have not a 
shadow of doubt. This of itself ought to make 
the approach of the day of their departure an ob- 
ject of desire to people who have lived as long 
as we have. If Jesus knows us, we shall be no 
strangers there. Let our departure, therefore, which 
to many of us is now so near, become a familiar 
thought, and then it will soon be a pleasant one — 
not dark and gloomy, but full of hope and joy. 




FOURSCORE. 

|HE days of our years," says the Psalmist, 
" are threescore years and ten, and if by 
reason of strength they be fourscore 
years, yet is their strength labor and sorrow." This 
is the common lot of humanity, we all know ; but 
it has pleased God to exempt me from the pains, 
the infirmities, and the failing faculties incident to 
old age. Indeed, it is only because I know the 
number of my years that I know that I am an old 
man. True, I have not as much bodily strength as 
I have had ; but I never had very much. In buoy- 
ancy of spirit I have lost nothing; in mental force 
I am not conscious of having lost anything ; in the 
mere enjoyment of physical life I know that I have 
lost nothing. " Well, then," my reader will say, 
" you have been highly favored." So I have been. 
I well remember that before I was ten years old the 
thought was strongly impressed upon my mind that 
I was destined to be highly favored, and I have car- 
ried that impression through all the vicissitudes of 
a changing and rather stormy life. At the age of 
twenty I thought this peculiar favor would come in 
an early death. But it came not in that way ; and 
now here I am at four times twenty, perfectly con- 
tent to wait, as Job expressed it, "till my change 
come " (xiv. 14). 

Many times I have changed my plan. I have 

(137) 



J 38 GATHERED SHEAVES. 

seen life in all its phases. I have mingled with all 
kinds of people, and engaged in a variety of labors 
and avocations. I have been favored with a mem- 
ory of unusual tenacity, and so am able to look 
back through a vista of more than seventy years, 
and fecall very many of the incidents of childhood, 
youth, and middle age as clearly as if they were 
both of yesterday. 

I have heard old people talk of the shortness of 
life when viewed retrospectively. That is not my 
experience. Did I not know the number of my 
years, I should imagine that I had lived through 
centuries. What amazing advances the world has 
made in every way since I began to observe it ! It 
would fill columns to enumerate things that have 
been brought forth in science, inventions, and im- 
provements in the physical, intellectual, and moral 
world during my day. Had a man been born under 
the reign of Alfred the Great, and moved among 
men during the thousand years which intervened 
between that date and the first decade of this cen- 
tury, he would not have seen as much advancement 
as I have seen. To live through such a period is in 
itself a great favor, and so have been my opportun- 
ities and powers of observation. Taken all together, 
my life has been a favored one. 

Fourscore is one of the most impressive epochs 
in human life. So far as the activities and interests 
of the world are concerned it is, or ought to be, the 
" last of earth." Not much more is to be done or 
hoped for here. The review of the past and the 
hopes which lie beyond, when mortality shall be 
" swallowed up of life," are enough to occupy the 



FOURSCORE. 139 

mind, and I thank God that to me both are pleas- 
ant. The blood of Jesus has washed away my sins 
which have been many, so that I know that for me 
" there is no condemnation." The power does not 
exist which is able to pluck me out of my Father's 
and my Redeemer's hand. I am able, with entire 
confidence, to use the Twenty-third Psalm, all but 
the last clause, in the past tense. That last clause 
can never be in the past tense. 

Although what the world calls plenty has not 
been my lot through life, I suppose few men have 
enjoyed more happiness, and that often in the 
midst of the darkest adversity. Thus have I proved 
that prosperity is not essential to enjoyment. 
While yet a boy the thought was strongly impressed 
upon my mind that I could not bear the possession 
of wealth. I prayed that I should never possess it. 
It is true that I tried, and tried hard, to better my 
worldly condition, but without decided success, in 
the common acceptation of that word. It pleased 
God to thwart me at times, and He often 

" Crossed all the fair designs I schemed, 
Blasted my gourds and laid me low." 

But the promise that " he that trusteth in the Lord 
shall not want any good thing " never failed me, 
and that kept my mind in peace. That trust is 
better than wealth ; for, in addition to its absolute 
and literal truth, it leaves nothing between a man 
and his God. It is well, to be sure, that some 
men should acquire wealth. It would not be good 
for the world that my experience should be the ex- 
perience of all. But I am fully persuaded that 



140 GATHERED SHEAVES. 

many men are toiling and moiling, and perhaps do- 
ing many things that they ought not to do, to ac- 
quire wealth which they would be better and safer 
without. 

There is a verse as wicked as it is vigorous which 
I came across long ago, and which fixed itself in 
my memory. This is it : 

" Tis a very good world that we live in, 
To buy, or to sell, or to give in ; 
But to beg, or to borrow, or get a man's own, 
'Tis the very worst world that ever was known." 

In my own experience I have found the very oppo- 
site of this to be true, forever since early life I have 
found almost unvarying kindness at the hands of 
my fellow-men. I have met with no wrongs worth 
speaking of, but so many favors, so many acts of 
loving-kindness, that now when about to step off 
the field of action, my heart is filled with grateful 
emotions. I can adopt the first line of the verse 
just quoted without any qualifications, for indeed it 
is a very good world, and I am not at all tired of it. 
Only let a man try to make the world better for his 
having lived in it, and there is no danger of his 
bringing railing accusations against it. Infinite 
Wisdom made this world of ours the best possible 
place for such a race of sinners as we are. It is 
beautiful, it is full of blessings, and with the Holy 
Spirit in his heart a man may be very happy in it, < 
while fitting himself under discipline for one still 
better. 

Such reflections as these might be extended in- 
definitely. But let this suffice. This article is nee- 



FOURSCORE. 141 

essarily egotistical ; for that, however, I offer no 
apology, because I think that long and varied ex- 
perience has given me some light, and we are for- 
bidden to hide what light we may have. Length 
of days ought to afford some wisdom, and that wis- 
dom may be of use to those who are not so far ad- 
vanced in the pilgrimage of life. Renewed health 
may enable me to hold some further converse with 
your readers. 




PROPHECY IN HISTORY. 

j)ANY of the events recorded in the Old 
Testament are prophetic as well as historic. 
When the seven years' famine came upon 
Egypt, according to the prediction of Pharaoh's 
double dream, as interpreted by Joseph, the people 
of Egypt, in their sorely-felt destitution, ran to the 
king for relief, just as all men, when brought to a 
sense of their own helplessness, call upon that Su- 
preme Being whom, with more or less intelligence, 
they recognize as God. Pharaoh was not deaf to 
the cry of his famished people, but said unto them, 
" Go to Joseph ; what he saith to you do." In this 
we find a beautiful prophecy and type of the 
Father's introduction of the Saviour to perishing 
sinners, where He directs them to go to Christ, 
saying, " This is my beloved Son in whom I am 
well pleased ; hear ye Him." Pharaoh, under God, 
had raised up Joseph to be a prince and a saviour 
to a famished people, and well and wisely he did 
the work which his God and his King had given 
him to do. God the Father raised up His Son 
Jesus to be a Prince and a Saviour in a vastly 
greater salvation ; and then in language almost the 
same as the king of Egypt had used, He says to us 
all, " Go to Jesus — hear ye Him — what He saith to 
you do." No relief can be obtained in any other 
way ; for there is none other name whereby we 
must or can be saved. 
(142) 



PROPHECY IN HISTORY. 143 

The final victory of the Church over her enemies, 
when the era of righteousness and peace shall suc- 
ceed the centuries of her struggle with error and 
opposition, is graphically set forth in the historical 
account which we have of the taking of Jericho 
(Joshua vi.). Jericho was a strongly walled city. 
No engines of physical force were to be or could 
be brought against it. Indeed the children of 
Israel had no implements of war that would have 
been of any avail against such a stronghold. But 
the Lord needed nothing of the kind ; therefore 
He chose a method which would tax the faith of 
His people to the utmost. Day after day, for six 
days, the host of Israel, followed by the priests 
bearing the ark of the Lord, were required to 
march round the city outside of the walls once, the 
priests meanwhile sounding trumpets of rams' horns. 
That was done one day, and then they returned to 
their camp. The second day the same thing was 
done, and so on for the third day, the fourth, 
the fifth, and the sixth ; but still no visible impres- 
sion was made. Had not God commanded it, a 
more foolish and ridiculous operation no army ever 
engaged in. Doubtless the men of Jericho made 
themselves merry as they gazed from the top of 
their walls at the idle pageant ; and the weak in 
faith among the Israelites would be ashamed, and 
strongly tempted to tax even their God with folly. 
But on the seventh day they were commanded to 
compass the walls seven times. At the seventh 
time the trumpets were to give a long and strong 
blast, and the people to utter a great shout. All 
this was done as commanded. The people did their 



144 GATHERED SHEAVES. 

part faithfully, and then God did His part. The 
walls fell flat as the Lord had promised that they 
should, and the city was taken and destroyed with- 
out making the slightest resistance, so far as we are 
informed. 

Now why was this protracted marching and 
trumpet blowing? It was, as intended, a severe 
test of faith and obedience on the part of the 
chosen people; and although they had often mur- 
mured and rebelled during the early part of their 
history, they did not fail to do their part on this 
occasion, notwithstanding the apparent uselessness 
and even absurdity of what they were called upon 
to do. That is a grand mention of this transac- 
tion which we find in the nth chapter of Hebrews: 
" By faith the walls of Jericho fell down after they 
were compassed about seven days." Their faith 
had its reward, although, beyond their simple obe- 
dience, what they did had no effect upon those 
walls. The power was all divine, and was unseen 
by mortal eye. 

So in obedience to their divine Master the heralds 
of the Gospel have been sounding their trumpets 
century after century around the world. The walls 
of the evil one seem to be as firm as ever ; but the 
day is approaching when they will fall down as flat 
as did those of Jericho. The command given to 
Joshua to march round and round those walls was 
very much like that given by the Lord to " go 
into all the world and preach the Gospel to every 
creature." But as soon as the Church of Christ 
shall have accomplished that work, " then will the 
end come "; Satan's kingdom will fall as did Jericho ; 



PROPHECY IN HISTORY. 1 45 

and God's spiritual Israel will take possession of 
the earth (see Dan. vii. 27). The victory will be 
gained, as it was at Jericho, not by the might nor 
the power of men ; not by wisdom, not by well- 
laid plans, not by powerful congregations ; but by 
the still small voice of the Holy Spirit, which God 
has promised to pour out upon all flesh — an in- 
fluence as invisible, as silent, as irresistible as was 
the force which prostrated the walls of Jericho, or 
that which at the appointed season clothes the 
earth w 7 ith verdure. 

All Bible readers are familiar with the history of 
Gideon's victory over the combined hosts of Midian 
and Amalek. At first Gideon had an army of 
thirty-two thousand men ; yet the enemies of Israel 
greatly outnumbered them. But the Lord said 
unto Gideon, " The people that are with thee are 
too many for me to give the Midianites into their 
hands, lest Israel vaunt themselves against me, 
saying, Mine own hand hath saved me." Gideon 
then gave permission to all who were afraid to go 
into such an apparently unequal fight to return to 
their homes. Twenty - two thousand returned, 
leaving only ten thousand. These, by remaining, 
may be ranked as volunteers — brave men who had 
faith in God and confidence in their leader. But 
the Lord said, " The people are yet too many," 
and by a singular test (see Judges vii. 5, 6) He re- 
duced the number to three hundred. Each of 
these was armed with a trumpet in one hand and 
an earthen vessel, here called a pitcher, with a 
lighted lamp in it, in the other. In the night, con- 
cealed by the darkness, this little unarmed body, 



146 GATHERED SHEAVES. 

divided into three bands, scattered themselves 
around the camp of the enemy, who were as grass- 
hoppers for multitude. At a signal from their 
leader every man broke his pitcher, which caused 
the light of his lamp to flash out suddenly in the 
sight of the panic-stricken host. At the same 
time a trumpet blast, equally sudden, rang in their 
ears, mingled with the cry, " The sword of Jehovah 
and of Gideon ! " This strange assault, which, in 
the absence of faith would have been audacity of 
the maddest kind, was enough for the Lord, who 
chooses the weak things of the world to confound 
the mighty. Every heart in that numerous host 
quailed with terror, and every warrior became so 
confused that he saw a foeman in every comrade. 
In this way " the Lord set every man's sword 
against his fellow even throughout all the host." 
Thus were the enemies of Israel dashed in pieces 
like a potter's vessel. 

Gideon, in this historical incident, .well repre- 
sents the Church of Jesus Christ in its conflict 
with the multitudinous forces of earth and hell. 
That was a very little band which Jesus, at the 
beginning, sent out against the camp of the prince 
of darkness which occupied the whole world ; and 
at no time have the Lord's lamp-bearers been any 
more than a little band. But the cheering words 
of their almighty Leader have never lost their 
potency — " Fear not, little flock, it is your Father's 
good pleasure to give you the kingdom." Like 1 
Gideon's band they have been going on and on for 
century after century ; but just now they are moving 
forward with a rapidity never before known. Every 



PROPHECY IN HISTORY. 1 47 

side of the mighty camp is begirt with these almost 
unnoticed lamp-bearers. In other words, the mis- 
sionaries of the cross sent out by the churches have 
now reached nearly all nations. The time for the 
breaking of the earthen vessels and for the outburst 
of light upon the earth, can not be far distant. I 
think we are warranted in believing that the de- 
struction of Satan's kingdom, by being divided 
against itself, as was the Midianitish army, may, 
judging from the signs of the times, soon be ex- 
pected. But as to what is symbolized by the break- 
ing of the pitchers, I venture not to hazard an 
opinion. 

In this article three different historical incidents 
are mentioned, and they only by way of examples 
of this writing of prophecy by types and symbols 
found in the history of events long past. The 
Scriptures of the Old Testament are full of them. 
But, nevertheless, let us be careful not to over- 
strain the teachings of the inspired volume on this 
line. 




RELIGIOUS PROGRESS IN SEVENTY" 
YEARS. 

| BOUT twenty-eight hundred years ago Solo- 
mon wrote, " Say not thou the former days 
were better than these "; and had he lived 
in our day he might have said the same thing with 
equal or stronger emphasis. Dr. Young says, " 'Tis 
greatly wise to talk with our past hours." The 
writers of the Psalms often speak of the past history 
of the chosen people, and of the Lord's dealings 
with them ; and Jesus Himself, in the fulness and 
freshness of His teachings, often refers to the men 
and the times of old. 

Having reached an age when memory sweeps over 
a period of seventy years, the writer feels that he 
may be permitted to speak of the changes and the 
progress which he has witnessed in his day, together 
with the impressions which the world made upon 
his mind as he passed through life from boyhood 
to old age. Perhaps he is peculiar in one respect — 
what he has forgotten is clean gone forever; but 
what he does remember is as fresh as if it were of 
yesterday. 

A little over seventy years ago a work fell into 
my hands — two large volumes, with numerous maps 
— which treated not only of the geography of the 
globe, so far as it was then known, but of the char- 
acter, manners, and customs of all the nations and 
(148) 



RELIGIOUS PROGRESS IN SEVENTY YEARS. 1 49 

tribes of mankind on the earth. It, however, dwelt 
most fully upon those least known at that day. 
Memory has retained the teachings of that work 
with singular tenacity, so that even to this day those 
maps and the facts given in the text come up as a 
groundwork of all I know on such subjects. Then, 
having been a careful observer of subsequent 
changes, I am able to have a clearer and more vivid 
impression of the advances which the world has made 
during that long period than I could have had but 
for that early study — not at school, but at home ; not 
imposed as a task, but voluntary, because I found 
it to be intensely interesting. 

China and Japan, shut up as they then were by 
jealous rulers, against the outside world, with their 
strange customs, with cities more populous at that 
day than any other on the globe, and with their 
temples, pagodas, canals, great wall, etc., were 
thoroughly studied and never forgotten. New Hol- 
land, as Australia was then called, with its immense 
extent; its strange flora and fauna; its aboriginal 
inhabitants, then supposed to be the lowest of the 
human race ; together with its vast but unexplored 
interior, made a strong impression. The only use 
which was made of that greatest of islands at that 
day was that of a British penal colony at Botany 
Bay, on its southwest coast. These, taken all to- 
gether, gave it a peculiar interest not unmixed with 
horror. Borneo, another great tropical island, was ' 
studied with similar feelings. All India was then 
wrapped in profound darkness so far as religion was 
concerned. All the islands of the Pacific were at 
that day peopled with savage cannibals of the lowest 



150 GATHERED SHEAVES. 

type, the fiercest and most hopelessly savage being 
those of New Zealand. Darkness at that day covered 
the earth, and gross darkness the people. There 
was not a word in that work on the subject of Chris- 
tian missions. 

This was a dark world during the first twenty 
years of this century. Napoleon was raging through 
Europe like a roaring lion. Even our own country, 
poor and unprepared as it was, rushed into war. 
The various conflicting sects of Christendom turned 
many of their pulpits into ecclesiastical batteries 
against each other. Slavery grew strong without 
protest, rebuke, or check. Not a voice was raised 
against intemperance. Poor debtors were at the 
mercy of their creditors, and were often cast into 
prison in default of payment. There were very few 
Sabbath-schools in those days, and meetings for 
social prayer were few and far between. 

Well do I remember — and it was the beginning 
of a new line of thought — when the Weekly Re- 
corder, published by Rev. John Andrews, of Chilli- 
cothe, Ohio — of which the Banner is a continuation 
— came into our family, and in it I read of the de- 
parture of the first missionaries to the Sandwich 
Islands. I had recently studied carefully the char- 
acter of those horrid savages, the murderers of Cap- 
tain Cook, the famous navigator, and I thought 
that if they could be civilized and Christianized, 
there was hope for all. Very few, however, had 
any faith in the success of the enterprise. Most 
people regarded it as madness. But now we know 
the result. 

Not very long after the missionaries had estab- 



RELIGIOUS PROGRESS IN SEVENTY YEARS. 1 5 1 

lished themselves there, an American naval vessel 
touched at the islands and found that the mission- 
aries had acquired sufficient influence over the na- 
tives to put a stop to a commerce unfit to be named, 
and which was common and unrestrained during 
their savage condition. A complaint against the 
missionaries was drawn up, signed by the officers, 
and forwarded to the Secretary of the Navy. The 
complaint was that the missionaries had put a stop 
to the friendly intercourse between the natives and 
American naval vessels. This missive was widely 
published, gave some trouble, and caused no little dis- 
cussion and controversy. Some years afterward I 
became acquainted with one of the officers who had 
signed that paper. But in the meantime he was 
converted and had become an earnest Christian, 
but still held the same position in the naval ser- 
vice. Although he knew that his sin was pardoned, 
the remembrance of it bowed his head like a bulrush 
for the rest of his days. With David he was con- 
strained to say, " My sin is ever before me." 

I have lived to see those hoary prison-houses, 
China and Japan, opened, and the light of the Gos- 
pel pouring in, so that the churches at home are 
filled with hope and joy. India is accepting Christ 
and casting away its idols. Ethiopia is stretching 
forth its hands unto God. Madagascar is sitting at 
the feet of Jesus. Indeed every door on earth is 
now open. New Zealand and Australia have be- 
come important nationalities, almost independent, 
and the natives are not exterminated as those in 
Cuba were, but raised up to Christian life. Nearly 
all the islands of the Pacific are now Christian. Lit- 



152 GATHERED SHEAVES. 

tie as I have done to help on these things, I have 
watched them through what would make a full term 
of human life, and feel like using the glad words of 
good old Simeon : " Lord, now lettest Thou Thy ser- 
vant depart in peace, .... for mine eyes have seen 
Thy salvation which Thou hast prepared before the 
face of all people." 

Not yet have the heathen — the nations — been 
given to the Son for His inheritance ; but during one 
lifetime marvellous progress has been made in the 
work of putting Him in possession. " Ask of me," 
says the Lord in the Second Psalm, " and I shall 
give thee the heathen for thine inheritance, and the 
uttermost parts of the earth for thy possession." 
We have in this century seen this great promise be- 
ing rapidly fulfilled. And what then ? " Thou shalt 
break them," says God, " with a rod of iron ; thou 
shalt dash them in pieces like a potter's vessel." 
The Son Himself tells us that in the work of taking- 
possession tremendous commotions will rend the 
earth ; the nations will be in perplexity, the sea 
and the waves roaring — strong figurative expres- 
sions of popular uprisings and lawlessness. Millions 
of hearts now beating in human breasts may be fill- 
ed with fear "and for looking after those things 
which are coming on the earth ; for the powers of 
heaven shall be shaken." Then only those things 
which can not be shaken will remain (Heb. xii. 27). 
Most plainly does the sure word of prophecy warn 
us that the Lord will not take possession of the 
world which He has redeemed, and establish the 
peaceable reign of righteouness, until He shall have 
swept away the accumulated rubbish of ages. Now 



RELIGIOUS PROGRESS IN SEVENTY YEARS. 1 53 

let us see how the Lord Jesus would have His be- 
lieving people meet the signs of the coming of that 
great and terrible day when He will wield that rod 
of iron and dash the nations in pieces like a pot- 
ter's vessel. How sublimely calm are His assuring 
words: "And when these things begin to come to 
pass, then look up and lift up your heads, for your 
redemption draweth nigh." 

When the tempest came down upon the disciples 
on the Sea of Galilee, and their Master was asleep, 
they were terribly alarmed, as thousands of disci- 
ples will be when they see " these things begin to 
come to pass " — and many now living may see 
them ; — but such fears are wrong, as was the ter- 
ror of the disciples in that storm. Jesus rebuked 
them for their lack of faith; and with like dis- 
pleasure will He regard the terror of His people at 
the roaring of the sea and the waves which He as- 
sures them are coming. But believers have nothing 
to fear, for their Heavenly Father speaks to them 
through His prophet in accents as calm, as kind, as 
loving, and as assuring as are the words of Jesus 
just quoted, saying : " Come, my people, enter thou 
into thy chambers, and shut thy doors about thee ; 
hide thyself as it were for a little moment until the 
indignation be overpast " (Isaiah xxvi. 20). 




THE WORLD'S PROGRESS. 

j|N the August Number of the Foreign Mis- 
sionary I met with this brief paragraph, 
printed merely as an item of news, without 
note or comment : 

" The New Testament in the Corean language is 
about to be printed from type furnished by Japan- 
ese type-founders." 

Here are two populous countries which had been 
for centuries shut up like great prison-houses, en- 
shrouded in thick heathenish darkness, bound in 
fetters, their people shut in from the world and the 
world shut out from them. For more than half a 
century the writer of this article has regarded those 
stupendous prisons with about as much faith as the 
Samaritan lord expressed when told that on the 
morrow the starving city would be abundantly sup- 
plied, and to which he answered, " Behold, if the 
Lord would make windows in heaven might this 
thing be/' (See 2 Kings vi., vii.) That Samaritan 
thought that nothing short of a miracle, like the 
raining of manna from heaven, could relieve the 
city ; and so many of us could not see how those 
ponderous bolts and bars could be broken. We 
prayed that it might be done ; but who among us 
believed that we should live to see the boon 
granted ? 

But it has been done, and we hardly know how. 
(154) 



THE WORLDS PROGRESS. 155 

No miracle that man can see has been wrought ; 
no convulsion has shaken the earth ; natural law 
and the ordinary providence of God have been 
going on as usual ; and yet those bars which for 
many generations confined the millions of China, 
Corea, and Japan have apparently melted away like 
a morning cloud. Truly in this case the kingdom 
of heaven has not come with observation. We 
know as little, and the people of those great na- 
tions know as little as to how it was done as Peter 
knew how the bolts and bars of Herod's prison 
were made to give way. But Peter saw that it was 
done, and we see that this great work has been 
done. Like Peter, we are glad ; yet nothing has 
happened that has either alarmed or astonished the 
world at large. The most wonderful thing about 
it is, that the fact can be stated in a few words, as 
if it were a common thing, that Japanese type- 
founders are furnishing type to print the New Tes- 
tament in Corea. 

Thus silently and invisibly, as the dew falls, is 
the Spirit of God coming down upon our race, and 
the light of the rising of the Sun of Righteousness 
is touching some of the darkest places on the globe. 
In this way will the glory of the latter day be ush- 
ered in. 

Although the faithful labors of the missionaries 
of the cross are required, just as the little band, 
with their pitchers, lamps, and trumpets were re- 
quired when Gideon scattered the Midianitish 
hosts, still it will be in the latter day as it was 
then. The three hundred with their fragile pitch- 
ers and glimmering lamps would only have pro- 



156 GATHERED SHEAVES. 

voked the derision and laughter of the great army 
of Midian had that army not at the same time been 
smitten with the terrors of God, and by His unseen 
power set to the strange work of mutual destruc- 
tion. In the same way the world, whether infidel 
or idolatrous, looks with contempt upon the little 
bands of missionaries who have gone out into the 
darkness with their pitchers and lamps. But, with 
the most thoughtful portion of unbelievers, derision 
is beginning to change into astonishment as they 
see such results as they now behold among the 
great nations of Eastern Asia. " Not by might 
nor by power, but by my Spirit, saith the Lord." 
" The Lord alone shall be exalted in that day." 
Paul may plant and Apollos may water — and Paul 
and Apollos may be ever so weak and contemptible 
in the eyes of the world — but God can give the in- 
crease in any measure He pleases. 

I am inclined to believe that when the latter-day 
glory shall come — that period we speak of as the 
Millennium — it will come without observation — 
that it will come upon a wretched and shattered 
world and a deeply humiliated Church — that it will 
find God's people as the liberated Peter found the 
disciples at the house of Mary, mourning and pray- 
ing for his deliverance ; but with faith so weak that 
they told Rhoda that she was mad when she an- 
nounced to them the fact that Peter himself was 
standing at the gate. 



THE AGES TO COME. 

VERY thoughtful Christian who has a good 
hope of everlasting life often dwells in med- 
itation upon that endless existence upon 
which he will soon enter — what will be its employ- 
ments, its activities, its joys, and its services ; and 
it is right that he should do so. The life of our 
Redeemer on earth was very active, and in His 
condition as a mortal man, His work in going about 
doing good was very laborious. " My meat is to 
do the will of Him that sent me, and to finish His 
work," said He, and in that work He found His 
highest joy. Before He became a man He is re- 
ported . by one of the old prophets as declaring : 
" Lo, I come ; in the volume of the book it is writ- 
ten of me ; I delight to do Thy will, O my God ! " 
But He came not to be ministered unto, but to 
minister — and to give His life a ransom for many. 
In this labor and sacrifice, in this sorrow and suffer- 
ing, He saw of the travail of His soul and was satis- 
fied, and thus secured not only eternal life and 
blessedness for His people, but a name that is above 
every name for Himself, and a measure of bliss which 
God alone is able to comprehend. 

" My Father worketh hitherto, and I work," says 
Christ ; and if the great Supreme and the Incarnate 
Son both find their blessedness in ceaseless activity, 
guided by infinite benevolence, surely the saints in 

(i57) 



158 GATHERED SHEAVES. 

glory are not destined to a life of idleness and self- 
gratification. Like their glorious Master they will 
be active in doing good — not laboriously so, as He 
was in this world ; but in that active benevolence 
their highest joy and their greatest strength and 
advancement will be found. 

There is a vast amount of work to be done in the 
ages to come in this boundless empire of Jehovah. 
The thought often rises in my mind that in this 
world of ours the first union of immortal life with 
corporeal existence, with flesh and blood, took 
place, and that we stand as it were at the threshold 
of the creation of God. In Revelation iii. 14 our 
Saviour applies a term to Himself which is nowhere 
else found — a term so profoundly mysterious that 
I never dared even in thought to comprehend it — 
" the beginning of the creation of God." It seems to 
be a glimpse of the wonders of His nature, and car- 
ries us back to that period which He mentions in 
His fullest recorded prayer, in which He speaks to 
His Father of "the glory which I had with Thee 
before the world was." It also seems to agree with 
that sublime passage in the 8th of Proverbs, where 
Wisdom personified says : " I was set up from ever- 
lasting, from the beginning, or ever the earth was. 
When there were no depths I was brought forth." 
(See Prov. viii. 22 to the end.) These last remark- 
able utterances can be used by none other than 
Christ, as we know the first two are. In all these 
the idea of progressive duration is clearly expressed, 
which can not be said of God in His essential na- 
ture. But all of them reach far beyond Adam in 
the past. That much we know, but that is all, 



THE AGES TO COME. 1 59 

Well did the prophet exclaim, when speaking of 
the promised Messiah : " His name shall be called 
Wonderful" (Is. ix. 6). 

The notion has crept into many minds that there 
are two distinct kinds of duration, time and eter- 
nity. That before this world began was eternity — 
sometimes rather absurdly called a past eternity. 
That time, as distinguished from eternity, measures 
the duration of this world, or, if taken as it applies 
to us as individuals, to this life, and that at death 
we shall enter eternity. This is all wrong. Time 
is simply progressive duration, however far back- 
ward or far forward it may reach, and embraces all 
beings except the Infinite One. Strictly speaking 
He is the only eternal being that exists or can ex- 
ist. To all other beings duration is necessarily 
progressive, and the length of their existence will 
ever be finite. Of the second person in the Trin- 
ity, we can never fathom the deep mysteries of His 
nature, nor of the ineffable relation which He bears 
to the Father — the same, yet distinct. On such a 
theme it were impious in us to speculate. That He 
is truly divine the Scriptures abundantly- testify ; 
therefore He must be eternal ; yet, in some sense, 
above the reach of our comprehension He Himself 
speaks of a beginning. 

So much for the ages past. Now let us see if 
we can find anything touching the ages to come — 
that unending duration which lies away beyond what 
we now see and know. Paul, in the first and second 
chapters of his Epistle to the Ephesians seems to be 
exalted to the third heaven in the grandeur of his 
views of Christ, and of " the hope of his calling, 



l6o GATHERED SHEAVES. 

and what the riches of the glory of his inheritance 
in the saints." Mark the words : " the riches of 
the glory of his inheritance in the saints I" (i. 18). 
Now read on, observing the force of every word, to 
the 7th verse of the second chapter, where he seems 
to reach the culmination of his grand theme, burst- 
ing away beyond what men call time to " the ages 
to come" — the successive cycles of that unending 
life which Christ gives to His saints, His Church, 
"which is His body, the fulness of Him who filleth 
all in all." 

Does not the thought of the apostle, or rather 
of the Holy Spirit who spoke through the apostle, 
rise higher and reach farther than to the coming 
centuries of the Church in this world, when he 
writes — " God, who is rich in mercy, for His great 
love wherewith He loved us, even when we were 
dead in sins, hath made us alive together with 
Christ, and hath raised us up together and made 
us sit together in heavenly places in Christ Jesus ; 
that in the ages to come He might show the exceed- 
ing riches of His grace in His kindness toward us 
through Christ Jesus " ? 

This is a vast universe in the midst of which we 
find ourselves. It is God's work, His empire, and 
we know that His tender mercies are over all His 
works. And we know, for God Himself has told 
us, that He who made these countless worlds, be- 
came a man in this world, and gave His life a ran- 
som for sinners. And we know that this divine 
man, after He rose from the dead, solemnly de- 
clared that to Him all power was given — not all 
power on earth only, but all power in heaven also. 



THE AGES TO COME. l6l 

This power is not confined to that celestial centre 
where in imagination we locate the throne of the 
Most High, and where Jesus in His humanity is 
supposed to dwell, but extends to and blesses all 
worlds with whatever benefits they are in need of. 
If in any of them there are beings capable of know- 
ing and worshipping God, there will the Holy Spirit 
direct and inspire that worship ; to them will minis- 
tering spirits be sent ; and the Holy Scriptures as- 
sure us "that in the dispensation of the fulness of 
times" — times, not time — " He might gather to- 
gether in one all things in Christ, both which are 
in heaven and which are on earth." What a vast 
work is here spoken of ! 

What, from this stand-point, is the grandeur of 
Paul's idea when he speaks of the ages to come ! 
What the immeasurable benefits of the labors and 
sufferings of Him who tells us that He is " the Be- 
ginning of the Creation of God," and by whom all 
worlds were made ! What a vast expansion does 
this view give us of the mediatorial kingdom of 
our Redeemer to whom all things shall be gathered 
together ! and to what unimaginable dignity does 
it advance those who are not only saved, but made 
kings and priests in that boundless empire, and 
whose high mission it shall be to dispense benefits 
and blessings to beings who may be called into 
existence millions of years hence ! There is no 
danger of exaggeration here, so long as we keep 
the sure word of revelation in sight. This thought 
pressed upon the enraptured soul of John when 
he exclaimed : " Behold, what manner of love the 
Father hath bestowed upon us, that we should 



1 62 GATHERED SHEAVES. 

be called the sons of God ! therefore the world 
knoweth us not, because it knew Him not. Be- 
loved, now are we the sons of God, and it doth not 
yet appear what we shall be ; but we know that 
when He shall appear we shall be like Him, for we 
shall see Him as He is ! " 




THE FATHERHOOD OF GOD. 

|HEN Paul stood on Mars Hill and talked 
to the Athenians about their altars and 
their idols, he, with masterly skill, seized 
upon an inscription which he had seen upon one of 
their altars, " To THE UNKNOWN GOD," to intro- 
duce to them the true God and the Christ — to tell 
them of that man who was appointed to judge the 
world in righteousness, the assurance of which is 
found in the fact that God raised Him from the 
dead. Of God he said, " In Him we live and move 
and have our being ; as certain also of your own 
poets have said, For we are also His offspring." So 
far, therefore, the apostle and his Grecian auditors 
stood on common ground, and from this common 
ground he began to preach Christ and the resurrec- 
tion. But the doctrine of the resurrection from the 
dead was so immeasurably beyond their philosophy, 
that the discourse was interrupted by some of them 
mocking, while others wished to have the discus- 
sion put off to another time. 

Paul, on that occasion, assented to the general 
truth that all mankind are the offspring of God. 
They are so, inasmuch as He is the author of their 
being, the Creator of the world and of all things 
therein. In this sense, therefore, the Grecian poet 
quoted by Paul spoke truly. In this sense, how- 
ever, not man only, but all the irrational creation, 
are the offspring of God. He is their Creator, their 

(163) 



164 GATHERED SHEAVES. 

Preserver, and their Proprietor. In the Fiftieth 
Psalm He says, " Every beast of the forest is mine, 
and the cattle upon a thousand hills. I know all 
the fowls of the mountains ; and the wild beasts of 
the field are mine." In the sense of the poet just 
spoken of they are God's offspring, and, as the 
Bible tells us, they are the objects of His perpetual 
care, not in a general way, but particularly ; for our 
Saviour assures us that a sparrow — one single spar- 
row — " can not fall to the ground without your 
Father." He does not say " their Father," but 
"your Father." They are the objects of His pre- 
serving care, but they are not His children. That 
is a relation which they are incapable of bearing ; 
therefore, although their Maker may hold the rela- 
tion of Proprietor, Preserver, and Benefactor to 
them, a Father He can not be ; for that is a recipro- 
cal relation, and requires another party capable of 
bearing the relation of son or child. 

Luke, in tracing the genealogy of Christ back to 
the prime ancestor of the race, says in conclusion, 
that Adam was "the son of God." It is easy to 
understand this, for he was a rational being, a free 
agent, a subject of moral law, and as such capable 
of bearing the relation of a son to God, the Author 
of his being, his Sovereign and his Father, whose 
image he bore. His rank was immeasurably higher 
than that of the fowl or the brute ; yet it was " a 
little lower " than that of the angels. In him the 
material and the spiritual were blended. If he 
looked below him to the animal creation he found 
much in common, much with which he could sym- 
pathize, even as far as an interchange of reciprocal 



THE FATHERHOOD OF GOD. 1 65 

affection. The poet Burns, in one of his letters, 
expresses a beautiful thought in saying that man is 
the dog's god — the highest being of whom he is 
capable of forming any conception ; and therefore 
he loves him and serves him with a degree of faith- 
fulness and devotion strongly analogous to the 
worship which man in his best state renders to his 
Maker. Then if Adam looked above, he saw spirit- 
ual beings a little higher than himself, with whom, 
as a spiritual being he had much in common, and 
with whom he could enter into loving sympathy 
and fellowship. Thus he and they, although dwell- 
ing in different spheres, and vastly different in their 
organisms — they being pure spirits, while in him 
were blended the animal and the spiritual — yet 
both were children of one Father. Thus was Adam, 
before he became a transgressor, a son of God. 
Thus did it please God to " centre in his make 
these strange extremes." 

When God said, " Let us make man in our 
image," the fiat was only begun in Adam, but by 
no means completed. He fell quickly and for- 
feited all right in himself to claim the relation of a 
son of God. But yet he was not cast off. An 
obscure promise of a Deliverer was given at once ; 
and thenceforward it became possible for men to 
live lives of faith. By faith Abel offered accept- 
able sacrifice, as, doubtless, his father Adam did 
also. By faith Enoch walked with God, and thus 
the long line of faithful worshippers in the early 
ages of the world looked forward to that One who 
was mighty to save. That is a sublime utterance 
which Elihu made in the presence of Job and his 



l66 GATHERED SHEAVES. 

friends, where, speaking of man in the generic 
sense, he said, " He (God) is gracious unto him and 
saith, Deliver him from going down to the pit ; I 
have found a Ransom." This was a bright revela- 
tion of that great truth to be uttered probably be- 
fore Abraham was called — that truth which shone 
brighter and brighter until the perfect day. We 
know in this day of Gospel light who that Ransom 
is ; but those ancient believers were filled with 
hope and joy at the mere promise that a Deliverer 
would come, a Ransom would be paid. 

We err if we entertain the thought that the fall 
of Adam was a great disaster. True, he was a son 
of God ; but by transgression he forfeited that 
sonship, and that forfeiture was transmitted to all 
his posterity by natural generation. But who and 
what was Adam ? He was but a man, a creature 
— lower than an angel, but higher than a mere 
animal. Paul (i Cor. xv. 47) tells us that he was 
" of the earth, earthy." He was but the germ of 
the human race. He was the culmination and 
crown of the animal creation, with a spiritual 
nature in embryo, which linked him with the 
spiritual creation — with angels who are spirits, and 
with God the Father of spirits. This rendered him 
capable of being a subject of moral law, and of im- 
measurable exaltation. But in him the animal 
propensities came into conflict with moral law, 
which was the command of his Maker, a command 
so simple, so plain, so easy to obey, that he had 
abundant power to obey. But he did not. The 
history of this wicked and suffering world gives, as 
nothing else can give so graphically, the conse- 



THE FATHERHOOD OF GOD. 1 6/ 

quences of that first transgression. Eve's confes- 
sion — it is not an apology — " The serpent beguiled 
me and I did eat/' shows us what evil outside in- 
fluence was exerted to bring about this fatal disas- 
ter to an embryo race, as Satan unquestionably 
supposed it would be. 

But to suppose that in this affair of the for- 
bidden fruit an all-wise and omnipotent God was 
in the slightest degree thwarted in His good inten- 
tions would be a monstrous error. He who is 
able to cause the wrath of man to praise Him, can 
make the same use of the malice of fiends. The 
devil was permitted to do enough to depose this 
man who was of " the earth, earthy " as the repre- 
sentative of his race, and make way for the Lord 
from heaven, to whom fell the birthright which the 
first Adam had forfeited. Hence Christ is called 
" the first-born among many brethren." 

When God said, " Let us make man in our 
image, after our likeness," and then formed of the 
dust of the ground the first man, and " breathed 
into his nostrils the breath of life," the great fiat 
only began to be accomplished. Not until He had 
brought into the world in the fulness and perfection 
of manhood that wonderful Being who is the bright- 
ness of the Father's glory and the express image of 
His person — that man whom Jehovah calls His fel- 
low — : that man to whom He says, " Thou art my 
Son, this day have I begotten thee " — that man 
"who is the image of the invisible God, the first- 
born of every creature, .... in whom all fulness 
dwells " — who was made for a little while lower 
than the angels for the suffering of death — who 



1 68 GATHERED SHEAVES. 

was " despised and rejected of men, a man of sor- 
rows and acquainted with grief "; who was so des 
titute in His life of labor and love that He had not 
where to lay His head — that divine man whose 
wondrous life filled and glorified all that lies be- 
tween the throne of the Most High and the gibbet 
of the malefactor — all between the brightest glories 
of heaven and the darkness of the tomb — not till then 
was that fiat fully accomplished. Well might Isaiah 
write these glowing words of such a being : " Unto 
us a Child is born, unto us a Son is given ; and the 
government shall be upon His shoulders ; and His 
name shall be called Wonderful, Counsellor, the 
mighty God, the everlasting Father, the Prince of 
Peace " (Is. ix. 6). 

Such is that glorious Being in whom we see the 
great original fiat, " Let us make man in our image, 
after our likeness," fully and perfectly accomplished. 
Not a lineament of that likeness is lacking either in 
fidelity or glory ; for the Scriptures of truth declare 
Him to be " the brightness of the Father's glory, and 
the express image of His person." And yet He is 
man, " the Son of man," as He so often called Him- 
self, and in which title He seemed to take peculiar 
delight. At the same time He is the Son of God. 
" Thou art my Son," says God, "this day have I be- 
gotten thee." Can we understand these wonderful 
words in any other than a literal sense as relating 
to the incarnation, and as addressed as much to the 
human as to the divine element in His person ? The 
history of the incarnation, as given in plain and sim- 
ple language by the evangelists, leaves us no war- 
rant to believe that God is not as truly the Father 



THE FATHERHOOD OF GOD. 1 69 

of our Lord Jesus Christ in His humanity as in His 
divinity — in His corporeal nature as in His spirit- 
ual. Dare we say that the Triune God is not as truly 
united with the humanity of our Redeemer as with 
His divinity? " He that hath seen me hath seen 
the Father," said Jesus to Philip, who had expressed 
a desire to see the Father. Now all that Philip had 
seen or could see in his mortal life was the corporeal 
part of his Lord ; yet he is emphatically assured that 
in seeing Him he had seen the Father. Truly all 
this is to us profoundly mysterious; but our Lord's 
reply to Philip ought to be sufficient to deter theo- 
logical experts from carrying Him into their dis- 
secting room, and dividing Him, so that they 
can lay His divinity here and His humanity there, 
assigning to each division its appropriate func- 
tions. 

Paul, in writing to Timothy, exclaims, " Great is 
the mystery of godliness : God was manifest in the 
flesh." The word manifest is defined by Webster 
to be " plain ; open ; clearly visible to the eye or 
obvious to the understanding ; apparent ; not ob- 
scure or difficult to be seen or understood." Apply 
this definition to the words of our Lord to Philip : 
" He that hath seen me hath seen the Father," and 
it enables us to understand how God was manifest 
in the flesh. In Jesus of Nazareth, therefore, we 
behold not the Son only, but the Father. This won- 
derful fact is stated in terms as simple and plain as 
they can be. When we meet with such revelations 
as this our part is to " believe only." Paul does no 
more ; only remarking, in adoring wonder, that it 
is a great mystery. 



170 GATHERED SHEAVES. 

I propose to follow this subject up in another 
article. " The old, old story " is by no means ex- 
hausted ; and, old as it is, I think it is possible to 
say some things about it which have never before 
been said. 




THE ONLY BEGOTTEN SON. 

j]N a previous article the Fatherhood of God 
was discussed. I now propose to trace the 
same inspiring theme through the revela- 
tion of the Son of God ; a revelation at once so 
simple that a child can receive it intelligently ; yet 
so deep, so high, so mysterious, that no created 
mind can fully comprehend it. 

John, in the introduction of his Gospel, says: 
" In the beginning was the Word, and the Word 
was with God, and the Word was God." The truth 
stated in these few plain but sublime words is as 
incomprehensible as is the Infinite One of whom 
they tell us. They speak of a Being under the 
name of the Logos, or the Word (which is but a trans- 
lation of the same word into English), who was in 
the beginning with God, and who was God. In the 
eighth chapter of Proverbs a mysterious being is 
introduced to us under the name of Wisdom — not 
an abstract principle, but a real personage who 
speaks for himself, saying : " The Lord possessed 
me in the beginning of His way, before His works 
of old. I was set up from everlasting, from the 
beginning, or ever the earth was." For the whole 
of that grand and mysterious passage — one of the 
brightest of the revelations of that Being who in His 
essence is altogether incomprehensible which is to 
be found in the sacred volume (see Proverbs viii. 
22-31). The key to it we find in what John says of 

(ni) 



172 GATHERED SHEAVES. 

the Logos, or the Word, in his introduction, and 
in the words of our Lord Himself, where again and 
again He speaks of having come down from heav- 
en, but more especially where He says in His great 
intercessory prayer : " And now, O Father, glorify 
Thou me with Thine own self, with the glory which 
I had with Thee before the world was." To us this, 
together with other passages just quoted or refer- 
red to, seems to indicate distinctness and separate- 
ness of personality ; yet the identity of the Father 
and the Son is quite as plainly and distinctly de- 
clared by the same infallible authority. " The 
Word was God," says John in his introduction. " I 
and the Father are one," says Jesus, for which 
utterance the Jews threatened to stone Him. " He 
that hath seen me hath seen the Father," said He 
to Philip. Again, while following out the same 
great truth, He said, " Believe me that I am in the 
Father and the Father in me." 

In these great sayings believers are able to see, 
as far as it is given to finite minds to see and com- 
prehend, the great mystery of God manifest in the 
flesh. Adam, the prime ancestor of the race, had 
fallen and lost his birthright. All we his offspring 
had fallen with him and were thrown into a state 
of orphanage. All went astray like lost sheep. 
None did good ; no, not one. The ruin of the race 
seemed to finite minds to be total and irremediable. 
No created arm was strong enough to repair the 
breach between man and his Maker. Upon this 
background of awful darkness, God, in the great- 
ness of His wisdom, power, holiness, justice, good- 
ness, and truth, found His opportunity to exhibit 



THE ONLY BEGOTTEN SON. 1 73 

before the eyes of all holy beings such a display of 
the glory of His character as they could never in 
any other way have been favored with. We are 
told that angels desire to look into it. Let our Re- 
deemer Himself tell what God did for this ruined 
race, in His recorded discourse with Nicodemus, as 
they sat together as friend with friend in the quiet 
of the evening in serious conversation. " God," 
said He, " so loved the world that He gave His only 
begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in Him 
should not perish, but have everlasting life." The 
next two verses I copy from the revised version. 
" For God sent not the Son into the world to judge 
the world ; but that the world should be saved 
through Him. He that believeth on Him is not 
judged : he that believeth not hath been judged 
already, because he hath not believed on the name 
of the only begotten Son of God." In these few 
words, clear and simple as they are, is compressed 
the great central truth of the redemption of the 
world. But here we meet with a term not found 
in the passages before quoted of the pre-existence 
of this Being whom Solomon calls Wisdom, whom 
Isaiah calls Wonderful, whom John calls the Word, 
and whom an angel bade Joseph his reputed father 
call Jesus. That term is " THE only begotten 
Son of God." Twice, with strong emphasis, does 
our Lord use this most significant phrase in the 
few words just quoted. John (i. 14) calls Him 
" the only begotten of the Father," and in verse 
18, " the only begotten Son." 

In the Second Psalm there is a remarkable ex- 
pression : " I will declare the decree : The Lord 



174 GATHERED SHEAVES. 

hath said unto me, l Thou art my Son ; this day 
have I begotten thee.' " If we understand the 
words " this day " to mean the period during which 
mortal men shall occupy this planet, it is impos- 
sible for theologians to maintain the doctrine of 
the Eternal Sonship of Christ.- Nowhere do the 
Scriptures teach that dogma. The doctrine of 
God being manifest in the flesh is a great mystery, 
as Paul says it is ; but to pile upon this another 
mystery, that this ineffable relation of Father and 
Son is eternal — that is, that it had no beginning — 
imposes upon our faith and credulity a tenfold 
strain, and involves a proposition which, in a mat- 
ter less sacred and less awful, we should pronounce 
an absurdity. But in the beautiful simplicity of 
the Word of God there are no absurdities. Let us 
therefore go back to the simple narrative which 
Luke gives of the events which fulfilled that great 
decree spoken of in the Second Psalm, and other 
similar prophecies. I shall quote but three verses 
from his first chapter. He says : " In the sixth 
month the angel Gabriel was sent from God unto a 
city of Galilee named Nazareth, to a virgin espoused 
to a man whose name was Joseph, of the house of 
David ; and the virgin's name was Mary " (verses 
26, 27). We now pass on to the thirty-fifth verse : 
" And the angel answered and said unto her, ' The 
Holy Ghost shall come upon thee, and the power 
of the Highest shall overshadow thee ; therefore 
(note the word), THEREFORE also that holy thing 
which shall be born of thee shall be called the Son 
of God.' " Surely such a paternity warrants our 
accepting in childlike faith the fact that the Son of 



THE ONLY BEGOTTEN SON. 1 75 

Mary is in the simplest verity the Son of God ; that 
He is "the only begotten of the Father." By this 
most wonderful of all transactions God became 
manifest in the flesh. In this way the Word, who 
was with God, and who was God, became flesh and 
dwelt among us as the Only Begotten. 

After Adam fell from his primitive position as 
the head and representative of his race, and took 
his place as one poor sinner among many — after his 
first-born son had murdered his righteous brother 
Abel— after Adam had lived amid these gloomy 
surroundings for one hundred and thirty years, we 
read that he " begat a son in his own likeness, after 
his image, and called his name Seth." Observe 
how careful the inspired historian is to tell us in 
whose image and likeness Seth was begotten. Both 
father and son were sinners ; yet both, we may 
hope, lived lives of faith and penitence, and, like 
Abel, offered acceptable sacrifice which foreshad- 
owed that blood which cleanseth from all sin. The 
stream, however, opuld rise no higher than the 
fountain. Such seems to be God's law in relation 
to man. Seth was his father's equal, his image ; he 
was like him. On the same principle, and by the 
same law, the Son of God, the Son of Mary, the 
Man Christ Jesus, thought it no robbery to be 
equal with His Father, His only Father, as He was 
the only begotten Son of His Father. His Father 
was divine; could He be less? True, it behooved 
Him to be made like unto His brethren whom He 
came to save ; but that did not make Him any the 
less glorious as God ; and in the midst of all His 
weakness, toil, and suffering, He put forth at times 



\j6 GATHERED SHEAVES. 

the full power and glory of the Almighty. Reason- 
ing from the same law of which we have just 
spoken in the case of Adam and Seth, we reach 
the sure conclusion that Jesus was altogether 
divine, while we know that He was altogether 
human — in a word, that He was, while He lived 
on earth, the God-man — and so He will ever be. 
Thus was God made manifest in the flesh ; and 
John says: "We beheld His glory, the glory as of 
the only begotten of the Father." Yet John when 
he wrote these words was only a mortal man, and 
was incapable of beholding anything but what was 
corporeal. He saw that glory as it shone in His 
flesh. In other words, he saw God manifest in the 
flesh. He saw what Moses prayed to see, the 
glory of God. But that privilege could not be 
granted to Moses; for Jehovah had not then be- 
come manifest in the flesh. But Peter, James, and 
John did see it in the holy mount, and so did 
Moses, while His person shone with a brightness 
which could not be described, as for a short time 
He stood talking with Moses and Elijah of His 
approaching death. They were also in glory. John 
probably alludes to this glorious transfiguration 
when he says he saw His glory. Peter in one of 
his epistles pointedly speaks of it. He and his 
companions caw His glory. It was not the glory 
of the Father, the absolute God ; for that was 
shown in the cloud which overshadowed them, and 
from which came the voice : " This is my beloved 
Son in whom I am well pleased. Hear ye Him." 
It was the person of their Master, the flesh, in 
which, not through which, the God of glory was 



THE ONLY BEGOTTEN SON. 1 77 

made manifest, and that glory John says was the 
glory as of the only Begotten of the Father. Then 
for the first time was Jesus exhibited to human 
eyes as " the brightness of the Father's glory and 
the express image of His person." Then was the 
original fiat fully accomplished, and not till then, 
" Let us make man in our image, after our likeness." 

So far I have not indulged in speculation, or ven- 
tured upon far-fetched inferences, but only endeav- 
ored to make text shine upon text. Allow me, 
however, to depart from that rule in saying what I 
reverently believe, that such a being, such a man, 
as Jesus Christ could not have been produced by 
any creative act. I regard that word " Begotten," 
which He Himself so often used, as one of infinite 
significance and of transcendent importance. By 
an act of direct and immediate paternity the infi c 
nite and eternal God became the Father of one 
man equal to Himself in power and glory, so that 
through Him He could gather to Himself a multi- 
tude of children that no man can number, brethren 
of His Only Begotten Son, and who should, like 
Him, be partakers of the divine nature. "O the 
depth of the riches both of the wisdom and knowl- 
edge of God ! how unsearchable are His judgments, 
and His ways past finding out ! " 

This outburst of adoring wonder on the part of 
the great apostle, in which he has reached the ut- 
most range of thought and language, and who be- 
yond that line saw still higher wisdom, brighter glo- 
ries, things altogether unspeakable, gives us his con- 
ception of the glories of Immanuel. In thinking or 
speaking of Jesus of Nazareth, the only begotten 



1/3 GATHERED SHEAVES. 

Son of God, exaggeration is impossible ; for, as the 
Baptist tell us, " God giveth not the Spirit by meas- 
ure unto Him." This is a most remarkable utter- 
ance. Let us bring the light of another equally 
wonderful text to bear upon it. Paul, in his Epistle 
to the Colossians, says, " In Him dwelleth all the 
fulness of the Godhead bodily." "All the fulness" 
agrees with the " without measure " of the Baptist ; 
and both express infinity in the most absolute sense. 
Any thing, any quantity, less than infinite can be 
and is measured ; but the fulness of the Godhead 
which dwells in Christ is immeasurable. How 
great, therefore, is that Man in whom the entire, 
the undivided, the one living and true God, dwells 
bodily, so that He could and did in calm assurance 
say, " He that hath seen me hath seen the Father ! " 
I have said, " how great is that Man ! " I know 
that this is a subject which the human mind can 
not fathom ; but we read that " God was manifest 
in the flesh." This faith can receive, although the 
intellect labors in vain to grasp the truth so plainly 
stated. We read that in Christ dwelt the fulness 
of the Godhead bodily — not only spiritually, but 
bodily. We read that our Lord told Philip in the 
plainest possible words, " He that hath seen me 
hath seen the Father," and yet Philip had not seen, 
and could not see, more than the corporeal frame 
of his Master. And we read in words as plain as 
words can be, that the Word which was God, and 
by whom or through whom all things were made, was 
made flesh and dwelt among us. Can we compre- 
hend all this? Not fully. Can we believe it ? Yes, 
easily ; and the more childlike our faith the more 



THE ONLY BEGOTTEN SON. 1 79 

fully can we comprehend it. Can we comprehend 
eternity, or infinite space ? No, certainly ; for the 
utmost stretch of our imagination or calculating 
powers is as nothing in such an effort. Can we be- 
lieve in them ? Yes ; for we know that duration and 
space are necessarily infinite. Our faith never stag- 
gers at that truth. Do we believe that God is infinite 
in wisdom and power? We never hesitate to accept 
that as an abstract truth. Do we believe that He 
could unite Himself to One bearing our nature, to a 
man, in such a manner that He and that man should 
be one and inseparable in nature, a perfect unit ? 
The New Testament gives us a united Christ, not 
a divided one. It says nothing about two distinct 
natures in one person ; but it does say all that is 
quoted above, and much more to the same effect. 

Moreover the New Testament has much to say 
of the body of our Lord. It was in His body, His 
flesh, that God was and is manifested. " The Word 
was made flesh." Jesus often speaks of His flesh 
and blood. " This is my body which is broken for 
you "; " This is my blood which was shed for many." 
It was the body of the Lord w T hich was buried and 
which rose again. Paul speaks of believers' bodies 
being made like Christ's glorious body. This body 
—the paternity of which we have already consid- 
ered — was and is both human and divine. Has He 
a human soul? L T nquestionably ; for He is a per- 
fect man, in all things like unto His brethren. He 
was, is yet, and ever will be, a perfect man, and in 
that man dwells the fulness of the Godhead bodily. 
These are at once plain facts, yet profound mys- 
teries. The simple-hearted believer can receive 



l8o GATHERED SHEAVES. 

them readily as far as the human mind can grasp 
them at all ; but when metaphysicians attempt to 
explain them, to analyze them, they only " darken 
counsel by words without knowledge." 

It would be well if the world's great thinkers, in 
the domains of both science and theology, could be 
brought to see that the fields in which their own 
observing and reasoning powers can operate are 
exceedingly limited when compared with the infi- 
nite ocean of truth which lies beyond ; and it would 
save a vast amount of controversy about questions 
of doubtful disputation were they able or willing 
to see the limits of their respective fields. When 
humble, childlike faith is suffered to guide the 
mind of the Christian into realms which, but for 
divine revelation, are utterly unknowable, he can 
see clearly sublime and glorious truths which are 
hid from the man who attempts to carry his own 
metaphysical powers beyond the boundary of the 
knowable. This thought gives great impressive- 
ness to the joyful outburst of our Lord, when He 
thought and spoke of these higher truths: "I 
thank Thee, O Father, Lord of heaven and earth, 
because Thou hast hid these things from the wise 
and prudent, and hast revealed them unto babes ! " 

I close with the single remark, that the longer I 
study the revelations we have of the nature of 
Christ, the more I see that His being, and the ele- 
ments of His being, have length, and breadth, and 
height, and depth too vast, too glorious, too won- 
derful, too mysterious for us to comprehend, until, 
like Him, we too are " filled with all the fulness of 
God," as Paul expresses it in Ephesians iii. 19. 



THE CHILDREN OF GOD. 

j|N two recent articles I gave my views on 
' The Fatherhood of God," and also on 
' The Only Begotten Son." From these 
highest of all themes — profound, mysterious, incom- 
prehensible, glorious — the descent to common mor- 
tals, to ourselves, is easy. On this part of our compre- 
hensive subject the inspired volume is rich and full. 
When the Word was made flesh He came unto 
His own. They, as a people, as a nation, received 
Him not ; but many individuals did receive Him, 
did believe on Him, and of them it is written, " to 
them gave He power to become the sons of God." 
In the revised version the passage reads thus : 
" He came unto His own, and they that were His 
own received Him not. But as many as received 
Him, to them gave He the right to become chil- 
dren of God, even to them that believe on His 
name." The most material difference between the 
two renderings is in the words " power" and 
" right." For my own part I prefer the revised 
rendering ; for the old version might lead some 
readers to imagine that they had in themselves 
some ability or power in the work of establishing 
this great relationship ; whereas it is not of our- 
selves, it is the gift of God bestowed solely through 
the merits, the obedience, and the atoning death 
of the one Mediator between God and the sinner. 
This view brings the text into harmony with I John 

(181) 



182 GATHERED SHEAVES. 

i. 9 : " If we confess our sins, He is faithful and 
just to forgive us our sins, and to cleanse us from 
all unrighteousness"; and also with Romans viii. I : 
" There is now no condemnation to them which are 
in Christ Jesus." In these precious texts we see 
the ground upon which the believer may claim the 
right — not merely on the score of grace and mercy, 
but of justice — to the place of a son or daughter of 
the Lord Almighty (2 Cor. vi. 18). 

In discussing " the Fatherhood of God," I ex- 
pressed the belief that Adam by his transgression 
lost his right to the relation of a son, a right which 
he could only regain by faith in a promised Deliv- 
erer, just like any other poor sinner. He and all 
his posterity fell into a state of alienation. They 
were lost. In the Fourteenth Psalm the moral 
condition of the world is thus depicted : " The 
Lord looked down from heaven upon the children 
of men, to see if there were any that did under- 
stand and seek God. They are all gone aside, they 
are all together become filthy ; there is none that 
doeth good, no, not one." In the face of this fear- 
ful picture how forcible are the words of Jesus : 
" The Son of Man is come to save that which was 
lost ! " Yet, although the world of mankind had 
thus fallen so low that all had become filthy, not 
one did good — so fallen that they sunk lower and 
lower, and wandered farther from God in each suc- 
ceeding generation — yet God loved them still — so 
loved them that He sent His only begotten Son to 
save them — so loved them that He Himself took 
on Him the likeness of sinful flesh, became a man, 
the Only Begotten of the Father ; and upon this 



THE CHILDREN OF GOD. 1 83 

Man Jehovah laid the iniquity of us all. All this 
He did " that He might redeem us from all ini- 
quity, and purify unto Himself a peculiar people." 
In this way He who is in a pre-eminent sense the 
Son of God, and who, by assuming our nature, be- 
came the Son of Man, purchased for all who believe 
on Him the right to become children of God in a 
sense immeasurably above what they could have 
inherited from their natural ancestor, no matter 
how true and obedient he might have been. This 
fall and rising again brought mankind — those of 
them who accept of the Saviour's call to come unto 
Him — into a relation to God such as they could 
never have reached in any other way. They are 
born again ; they are made new creatures ; their 
natural spiritual life, such as Adam possessed, hav- 
ing become extinct through sin, is replaced by a 
life derived immediately from God through the 
Spirit. Hence believers in Jesus become literally 
and truly partakers of the Divine Nature, as truly 
so, in their measure, as Christ Himself. He is the 
only begotten Son. From Him in whom dwelleth 
all the fulness of the Godhead bodily, and who is 
therefore absolutely infinite, all life flows. But the 
life which He gives to His ransomed ones, to those 
whom the Scriptures call " the heirs of salvation," 
is a part of His own divine life, which makes them 
a " peculiar people." But more than this : it makes 
them His brethren, and sharers in that relation 
which He Himself holds to the Father. Hence 
their union with Christ by faith lifts them up to 
the rank and dignity of sons or children of God. 
Such love passeth knowledge. John, in view of it, 



1 84 GATHERED SHEAVES. 

bursts out into words of rapturous astonishment, 
exclaiming, " Behold, what manner of love the 
Father hath bestowed upon us, that we should be 
called the sons of God ! " 

We have spoken of the life which Christ gives to 
His ransomed ones. That life is a peculiar life. He 
says : " I give unto them eternal life." Again : 
" This is eternal life, that they might know Thee 
the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom Thou 
hast sent." Jesus often speaks of eternal life, and 
so do the apostles, in such a way as to warrant us 
in putting a far higher construction upon the words 
than merely as expressive of an unending existence 
in a state of blessedness. I believe that it means 
a vital union between that Infinite Life which has 
neither beginning nor end, and the sinner, who was 
dead, but has been made alive again, who was lost, 
but is found. 

We know very little — we might say we know 
nothing — of what is going on in the countless suns 
and systems scattered all around us, and stretching 
away through depths of space which the strongest 
telescopes can not fathom. But we do know that 
that wonderful Being who was slain on Calvary for 
our redemption, and rose again for our justification, 
said to His brethren just before He ascended to His 
throne on high, " All power is given unto me in 
heaven and on earth." Now that empire which He 
thus claimed embraces all created things, for both 
heaven and earth are included. It was a man who 
said that ; therefore a human hand this day wields 
the sceptre of the universe. What Paul says in 
Phil. ii. 9-1 1, warrants us in entertaining this, won- 



THE CHILDREN OF GOD. 1 85 

derful thought, " God also hath highly exalted him 
(he says) and given Him a name which is above 
every name ; that at the name of JESUS every knee 
should bow, of things in heaven, and things in earth, 
and things under the earth ; and that every tongue 
should confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the 
glory of God the Father." " The name of Jesus," 
— Christ's human name — the name given from 
heaven to His reputed father before His birth in 
Bethlehem — is above every other name. It is a 
name to which all creation does homage. This for- 
bids the thought that in all the unnumbered worlds, 
visible and invisible to us, which revolve around us 
on every hand, there is another Being so great, so 
good, so wise, so powerful as that blessed One who 
gave Himself for us, and died on this planet for our 
salvation. How great, therefore, must they be who 
stand to Him in the relation of brethren, who are 
joint heirs with Him, and partners of His throne ! 
John, in writing his epistle, thought of this; but all 
he could say was, " It doth not yet appear what we 
shall be ; but we know (he does not say we believe, 
or hope, but we know) that when He shall appear we 
shall be like Him ; for we shall see Him as he is." 

When Jesus was laboring to cheer and comfort 
His desponding disciples on the last night which 
He spent with them before He suffered, He said, 
" In my father's house are many mansions." I have 
often pondered these sublimely beautiful, yet mys- 
terious, words. I think the phrase, " my Father's 
house," means this vast universe, these heavens 
which declare His glory. " If it were not so I would 
have told you," He continues, and then He adds, 



1 86 GATHERED SHEAVES. 

" I go to prepare a place for you" This, too, is very 
mysterious. When Adam was created and set over 
this planet as its monarch, the first thing to be done 
was to find a suitable companion for him. Then the 
lower orders of animated nature were made to pass 
before him ; but no suitable mate was found for the 
man. Then was a woman, a helpmeet, a wife, pre- 
pared expressly for him, and man was no longer 
alone, a hermit, in this world which was so full of 
living things. Can not we find in this incident a key 
to the mysterious promise of our Lord that He will 
go to prepare a dwelling-place suitable for Himself 
and His Bride the Church, made up of all who, in 
every age and nation, shall believe on His name? 
Paul, in writing to the Ephesians (v. 29-32), had 
this relation among mortals in his mind, and used 
it to illustrate a far higher relation. He says : " No 
man ever yet hated his own flesh, but nourisheth 
and cherisheth it, even as the Lord the Church ; for 
we are members of His body, of His flesh, and of His 
bones. For this cause shall a man leave his father 
and mother, and shall be joined unto his wife, and 
they two shall be one flesh. This is a great mystery. 
But I speak concerning Christ and the Church." 

Thus are the dearest and most intimate of earthly 
relations, the parental, the filial, the fraternal, and 
the conjugal, all brought into service to enable us 
as far as possible to comprehend that "love of 
Christ which passeth knowledge." Indeed, as John 
says, " It doth not yet appear what we shall be ": 
for the closest and dearest of all relations of which 
we have any knowledge are used to set forth the 
love of Christ for those for whom He died. We 



THE CHILDREN OF GOD. 1 87 

read, " whom He justifies them He also glorifies." 
And in His intercession (John xvii. 22), Jesus says, 
" The glory which Thou gavest me I have given 
them." He received that glory beyond measure ; 
they receive it to the measure of their utmost 
capacity. It is more than a creature's glory ; for it 
is the same that the Father gave to the Son. In 
Him dwells the fulness of the Godhead bodily; 
they, on the other hand, are, as Paul expresses it, 
" filled with all the fulness of God." So glorious 
are Christ's redeemed that He is not ashamed to 
call them brethren. If they are His brethren, then 
they have the same right that He has to claim God 
as their Father ; for, as it is written, " to them gave 
He the right to become children of God " (John i. 
12. Revised version). " Behold," says John, in 
wonder and adoration, " what manner of love the 
Father hath bestowed upon us, that we should be 
called the sons of God ! " 

In our English translations, both the old and the 
revised, the word Adoption is used to express the 
manner in which a redeemed sinner reaches the 
place of a child in God's family. But that word — 
although it is the best we have in our language — falls 
far short of expressing the idea which the Scriptures 
just quoted give of that relation. A man may adopt 
a child, and throw around him all the forms of law 
and all domestic endearments ; but he can not make 
him really his child. He will still lack the all-import- 
ant element of consanguinity. But the child of 
God, born of the Spirit, washed in the atoning blood 
of Jesus, becomes a partaker of the divine nature, 
and is really, truly, literally, a child of God. 




THE PERSON OF OUR LORD. 

IF the absolute Deity we know nothing. 
" No man hath seen God at any time ; the 
only begotten Son, which is in the bosom 
of the Father, He hath declared Him " (John i. 18). 
" Declared Him " — revealed Him, made Him known. 
The phrase " only begotten Son " has, I think, 
reference alone to the incarnation. What Gabriel 
said to Mary, when he told her of the miraculous 
conception of which she was soon to be the subject, 
favors this idea. His words were — " therefore also 
that holy thing which shall be born of thee shall 
be called the Son of God." As a child, and as a 
man, He was really, truly, literally, and physically 
the Son of God, and in all these was consequently, 
necessarily divine. In this way that holy thing 
which was born of Mary, while as perfectly human 
as any child ever was, was God's Son, and was, for 
that reason — " therefore " — called the Son of God, 
as Gabriel said. He was God's Son in all the com- 
plicated elements of His nature, body, soul, and 
spirit — all divine, all human — the God was man, the 
man was God. 

What relation existed between the Father and 
that mysterious One whom John calls the Logos, * 
who was with God, and who was God, and by whom 
all things were made, is to us an impenetrable 
mystery, unknown and unknowable. In the eighth 
chapter of Proverbs He is called W T isdom, and His 
(188) 



THE PERSON OF OUR LORD. 1 89 

existence before the worlds were made is set forth 
in the strongest and sublimest terms. John calls 
Him the Word ; but the depth of meaning there is 
1 in that term is infinitely beyond the reach of the 
human mind. Christ Himself speaks in His prayer 
(John xvii.) of the glory which He had with the 
Father before the world was. But in all the Scrip- 
tures there is no place where Christ bears the title 
of Son until He became such in the incarnation, 
which made Him, what He so often called Himself, 
the Son of Man. 

When Christ appeared to John on Patmos in 
such glory that the beloved disciple, who once 
leaned on His bosom in affectionate confidence 
and easy familiarity, fell at His feet as dead, did 
He come as God, or as man, or as both? Unques- 
tionably both. Hear what He says : " Fear not ; I 
am the first and the last ; I am He that liveth 
and was dead, and behold I am alive for evermore, 
Amen, and have the keys of hell and of death." 
No one less than divine could utter such words as 
these ; and yet He says He was dead. Who was 
dead? Was God dead? Or is it a man who is 
speaking ? It is ; and yet that man is God— that 
God is" a man. We can only use the exclamation 
of the great apostle : " Great is the mystery of 
godliness ! God was manifest in the flesh." He 
seems in this wondrous vision to be all divine ; yet 
He says He was dead. He had not forgotten Calva- 
ry amid the splendors of heaven. In this pass- 
age the perfect unity of the divine and the human 
in the person of Christ is so set forth that it seems 
to be impossible to separate them even in thought. 



I90 GATHERED SHEAVES. 

Christ is a perfect unity and not a duality as some 
would have us believe. It is all wrong in any one 
to say, as some do, that while He dwelt upon earth 
as a mortal man, as He really was, He acted at one 
time as a man, at another time as God. Such 
teaching makes Him a compound being, a duality, 
or rather two beings linked together in one person. 

But how can Christ be both God and man and 
yet a perfect unity? That is a question that pass- 
eth knowledge. Paul did not attempt to tell us, 
neither did Jesus Himself; yet He said to His sor- 
rowing disciples, who were gazing upon His be- 
loved face on the saddest and darkest night that 
He lived on earth, " He that hath seen me hath 
seen the Father." In that great utterance there is 
a unity spoken of deeper and more mysterious still. 
Here we can not comprehend ; we can only believe. 
It is true ; but how it is true we can not understand. 

I think we err when we imagine the humanity of 
Christ to be inferior to the Divinity. Both are in- 
finitely exalted. To ask how that can be is to ask 
an unanswerable question ; yet the same voice which 
but a moment before had, in the great vision on 
Patmos, claimed to be " the Almighty," said, " I 
am He that was dead." ' 

Allow me to quote a few words from the remark- 
able discourse with which Rev. Francis L. Patton, 
D.D., opened the last General Assembly : 

"A human heart is beating in the bosom of God ; a hu- 
man hand holds the sceptre of the world ; and the Monarch 

of the Universe is the elder brother of mankind The 

Logos was the Lamb slain from the foundation of the world, 
and the union of God and man in the person of the Saviour 



THE PERSON OF OUR LORD. 19T 

is the thought that has controlled the history of the world. 
.... Let us honor Christ. Let us vindicate the true place 
of man in the mind of God by making the person of our 
Lord the centre of all our thoughts. The Logos assumes a 
human nature, and so God becomes man. Man takes the 
Holy Spirit to his heart, and so becomes a partaker of the 
Divine nature." 

The study of the stupendous mystery of God 
manifest in the flesh, and the relation established 
between the Eternal God and ourselves by the In- 
carnation, is transcendently more important than 
any other to which we can turn our thoughts. So 
deep, so high, so vast is the theme that we shall 
probably never fully grasp it through the everlast- 
ing ages in which it will be our privilege to see face 
to face our Divine Brother who was dead but is 
alive for evermore, and to be with Him and to be- 
come more and more like Him by partaking more 
and more of the Divine nature ; for the promise is 
that we shall be like Him when we shall see Him 
as He is. Here in this life we can begin this study, 
and get a faint glimpse of the glories of Immanuel ; 
there we shall continue it for ever and ever, without 
ever reaching the length and breadth and height 
and depth of either the greatness, or the glory, or 
the love of Christ, all of which pass finite knowl- 
edge. Yet, great, glorious, and good as He is, He 
is our fellow-man, our Brother. " Behold, what 
wondrous grace the Father hath bestowed upon us, 
that we should be called the sons of God ! " 




CHRIST'S MESSAGE TO JOHN THE BAP- 
TIST. 

jjlOR rebuking the tyrant Herod, because he 
had taken his brother's wife, John the Bap- 
i tist was thrown into prison. Like Ahab, 
Herod seems to have been ruled by a woman who 
was worse than he was himself. He had a profound 
respect for John. He feared him, " knowing that 
he was a just man and a holy, and observed him ; 
and when he heard him he did many things, and 
heard him gladly " (Mark vi. 20). In the same 
way Ahab feared Elijah and did his bidding ; but 
whether he heard him gladly we are not so sure. 
At Carmel he was as submissive and obedient as a 
man could be. But in both cases there was a power 
behind the throne greater than the throne itself — 
behind Ahab's throne was Jezebel ; behind that of 
Herod stood a woman equally wicked and deter- 
mined. When Jezebel threatened the life of Elijah 
he fled ; when Herodias demanded the head of 
John, it was given to her ; for he was in prison and 
could not fly. In neither case could the wretched 
husbands and slaves of these domestic tyrants resist 
their will, or shield the objects of their vengeance. 
Both the men were grossly wicked and consequently 
weak; but neither of them was by any means as 
ferocious as the still wickeder woman to whom they 
were respectively allied. 

How long John lay in prison we know not ; but 
(192) 



CHRIST'S MESSAGE TO JOHN THE BAPTIST. 1 93 

it is plain that he was not under sentence of death. 
To his ardent and active spirit such confinement 
would be a sore trial. We know that his disciples — 
a band growing smaller and smaller — still had ac- 
cess to him ; for Herod probably treated him as 
kindly as he dared to do. Meantime Jesus of Naza- 
reth, whom John had baptized and introduced 
to the people of Israel as the Lamb of God, was 
actively prosecuting His great mission, and His 
fame was spreading abroad. He was increasing, as 
John had said He would, while John was decreasing. 
But, so far as the sacred history goes, Jesus acted 
as if He had forgotten that such a man as John ex- 
isted. This to him would be a sore trial, and day 
by day his mind would sink into deeper gloom and 
despondency. Would the true Messiah suffer him 
to be there ? or would he treat him with such neg- 
lect ? Such painful questions as these would nat- 
urally arise in his mind, and cause some measure 
of doubt. At length he could stand it no longer. 
Calling two of his faithful disciples, he sent them to 
Jesus with the awful inquiry: " Art thou He that 
should come, or do we look for another?" 

To have sent a merely verbal reply to such a 
question would have been idle, for that any pre- 
tender could do. Jesus knew this. He knew what 
was in the mind of John. He knew that his mes- 
sengers were coming ; and by the unseen operation 
of His power He assembled a group of unconscious 
witnesses ; for in that same hour, Luke tells us 
(vii. 21), "He cured many of their infirmities and 
plagues, and of evil spirits ; and unto many that 
were blind He gave sight." Then turning to John's 
13 



194 GATHERED SHEAVES. 

messengers He said : " Go your way and tell John 
what things ye have seen and heard : how that the 
blind see, the lame walk, the lepers are cleansed, 
the deaf hear, the dead are raised up, and the poor 
have the gospel preached to them ; and blessed is 
he whosoever shall not be offended in me." Thus 
was Heaven's seal set upon the brow of the humble 
Nazarene in the presence of John's messengers, at- 
testing His claim to be the One that should come, 
the Messiah of the Old Testament prophets. That 
was what John wanted. It was not so much to 
know that a great prophet had arisen ; but does 
that prophet prove himself to be the very one 
" of whom Moses in the law and the prophets did 
write " ? That was the question ; and Jesus, in every 
clause of His answer, points to a distinct prediction 
of one or another of the old prophets, after having 
plainly fulfilled each prediction before the eyes of 
John's witnesses. A sublimer or more wonderful 
incident than this is not to be found in the gospel 
narratives. 

But it is to the last and crowning clause that I 
wish more particularly to draw attention at pres- 
ent. Miracles of power, as all but the last in this 
category were, strike the minds of many people 
most strongly; and in reading this passage they 
suppose, when they come to the words " the dead 
are raised," that they are through with the list of 
the credentials from on high, and exclaim, " That's 
all." But the greatest of all remains in the crown- 
ing declaration that " to the poor the gospel is 
preached." Turn to the opening verses of Isaiah 
lxi. for one of the grandest predictions of the Mes- 



CHRIST S MESSAGE TO JOHN THE BAPTIST. 1 95 

siah ever penned by an ancient prophet, and the 
one which Jesus Himself read in the synagogue of 
Nazareth as His own commission from God, and 
you will see that I do not err in making that con- 
cluding clause the crown and culmination of this 
glorious list of evidences ; for Jesus Himself chose 
it, saying, " This day is this scripture fulfilled in 
your ears." To John's troubled mind that would 
be the most satisfactory of any, for well he knew 
that in that passage in Isaiah is given the fullest, 
the clearest, and the most beautiful delineation of 
the Messiah to be found in the Hebrew Scriptures. 
Our translators have made Isaiah say, " The 
Spirit of the Lord God is upon me ; because the 
Lord hath anointed me to preach good tidings 
unto the meek ; He hath sent me to bind up the 
broken-hearted, to proclaim liberty to the captives, 
and the opening of the prison to them that are 
bound." Jesus read from the Septuagint, and 
what He read is rendered in our version in these 
words : " The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, be- 
cause He hath anointed me to preach the gospel 
to the poor; He hath sent me to heal the broken- 
hearted, to preach deliverance to the captives, and 
recovering of sight to the blind, to set at liberty 
them that are bruised, to preach the acceptable 
year of the Lord." Here very little is said of 
miracles of power, but the passage is as full as it 
can be of miracles of grace ; and the sum of it was 
compressed by our Lord in His message to John 
into the brief clause, " the poor have the gospel 
preached to them." What Luke renders " the 
gospel to the poor" is expressed in Isaiah lxi. 1, 



196 gathered sheaves. 

by the phrase, " good tidings unto the meek," 
which means the same thing. 

This feature of Christ's kingdom upon earth, 
like charity among the Christian graces, still abides 
as its brightest and best and most enduring charac- 
teristic ; while the miraculous, having served its 
purpose, has long since ceased. The world, under 
the guidance of the prince of this world, has, it is 
true, interposed serious barriers to this work, which 
Christ Himself claimed as the crowning glory of 
His kingdom, in the shape of costly and luxurious 
edifices and gaudy apparel, all of which are calcu- 
lated to foster the lust of the eye and the pride 
of life, and in the presence of which the poor in 
worldly goods are shamed and humiliated, and in 
some cases even debarred from the house of God. 
Still it is true — though not as universally true as 
it ought to be — that " to the poor the gospel is 
preached." The Bible says in one place, " The 
poor and the rich meet together, and the Lord is 
the maker of them all." In His presence all are 
alike poor ; and surely His presence is the last 
place in which to make a display of our worldly 
wealth. When we enter that presence, let us keep 
in mind the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, who, 
though He was rich, yet for our sakes became poor, 
that we through His poverty might be rich. 




THE EVIL ONE. 

pHE revisers of the New Testament have 
changed the closing petition of the Lord's 
Prayer from "Lead us not into temptation, 
but deliver us from evil," to "Bring us not into 
temptation, but deliver us from the evil one." 
There is but a shade of difference between the 
words lead and bring, a difference which it is easier 
to put than to define. Bring is expressive of a less 
direct and active agency on God's part than lead. 
James makes the matter clear when he says, " God 
can not be tempted with evil, neither tempteth He 
any man." But we all know that we may be brought 
into circumstances which may draw us from the path 
of rectitude. Against this Jesus teaches us to pray. 

But the final clause, " Deliver us from the evil 
one," startled the whole Christian world. To have 
the mind brought back from a world of wicked, bad, 
injurious, hurtful, calamitous things, the opposite of 
what we call good, and concentrated upon one per- 
sonal being, who, in the inspired volume, is called 
the Evil One, was a change so great that nearly 
everybody revolted against it. But those profound 
scholars who made the change in the translation 
tell us that it is the true rendering of the inspired 
original, and that they could not do otherwise. 

The belief in the existence of the great adversary 
of God and man as an active and dangerous agent 
of evil is not held at present in that realizing sense 
which it was in times not very remote. Luther's 

(i97) 



198 GATHERED SHEAVES. 

life was almost one perpetual battle with the devil ; 
and Bunyan lets us know what he thought on that 
subject when he tells us so graphically of the desper- 
ate battle between Christian and Apollyon. That 
strong conception which eminent Christians of three, 
two, and even one century ago held of the great ad- 
versary was in perfect accordance with the mind of 
the apostle Peter, who knew him so well from his 
own bitter experience. He, in the closing chapter 
of his first epistle, exhorts believers to " be sober, 
to be vigilant (or watchful, as the revised version 
reads) ; because your adversary, the devil, as a roar- 
ing lion, walketh about seeking whom he may de- 
vour." And Jesus Himself, but a short time before 
He taught His disciples that prayer, had a fierce 
conflict in the desert with the evil one. 

But the wretched superstitions which grew up in 
the minds of the ignorant respecting witches and 
witchcraft, and the horrid wrongs and barbarities 
which resulted from such notions, caused such a re- 
vulsion in the minds of intelligent people, that the 
idea of a personal devil was almost swept away with 
the superstitions which had gathered around him. 
A vague, undefined abstraction took his place which 
was called evil. The new reading which the revisers 
have given us brings us back from an abstraction 
which has neither metes nor bounds to a fixed cen- 
tre of thought, a doctrine which is clearly taught in 
the inspired volume, to wit, the personality of Satan, 
and to his evil designs. Jesus knew what He was 
saying when He told Simon and his fellow-disciples 
that Satan desired to have them that he might sift 
them as wheat. It were rank nonsense to talk of 
an abstract principle having a desire. 



THE EVIL ONE. I99 

But what is evil ? We don't know. Our Episco- 
pal brethren pray that the good Lord would deliver 
them " from battle and murder and sudden death," 
and many other things regarded as evil. Now the 
good Lord may send any or all these terrible things, 
not as evils, but as good, just as He permitted Satan 
to sift Peter and his fellow-disciples. It was good 
for them and good for believers in all ages that they 
were subjected to that terrible ordeal. They were 
delivered, not from that trial, but from the Evil One. 
So in all trials, whether in the loss of property, loss 
of reputation, loss of friends, or of health, or in any- 
thing which we regard as afflictive or calamitous, 
the evil or the good turns altogether upon the way 
we are exercised by them. If they draw us in hum- 
ble submission nearer to God, they are good ; if 
they drive us away in sullen discontent and in a 
murmuring spirit, they are evil ; for by such a spirit 
we fall an easy prey to that evil one, that roaring 
lion of whom Peter speaks as above quoted. There 
is, therefore, no such thing as abstract evil. If there 
were, God the Creator of all things must necessarily 
be its author. But when we find it in a rebellious 
creature, or in a host of them, as we do in what our 
great Teacher calls " the devil and his angels," be- 
ings who are the active agents of evil, we find some- 
thing very different from an abstract principle. 
Satan and his evil angels stand before us as antip- 
odes of God and His holy angels ; and hence being 
supreme in his vast yet limited domain, he is called 
the Evil One, from whom our Great Deliverer 
teaches us to pray to be delivered. 




NAMES WRITTEN IN HEAVEN. 

j]N the early part of the public ministry of 
Jesus He chose twelve men who were to 
be in a pre-eminent sense His disciples, 
His apostles, His witnesses. These men He in- 
vested with " power against unclean spirits to cast 
them out, and to heal all manner of sickness and 
all manner of disease." He sent them not to the 
Gentiles, but only to the lost sheep of the house of 
Israel. And He said, "As ye go, preach, saying, 
The kingdom of heaven is at hand. Heal the 
sick, cleanse the lepers, raise the dead, cast out 
devils. Freely ye have received, freely give. Pro- 
vide neither gold, nor silver, nor brass in your 
purses, nor scrip for your journey, neither two 
coats, neither shoes, nor yet staves ; for the work- 
man is worthy of his meat." He then added many 
other words of encouragement and of warning. 
" Behold," said He, " I send you forth as sheep 
in the midst of wolves ; be ye therefore wise as 
serpents and harmless as doves." In this utterly 
destitute condition He sent them forth on their 
perilous mission. All the promise He gave was, 
" the workman is worthy of his food." But who 
would recognize that worthiness and provide that 
necessary food ? Would they be left to the mercy 
of the wolves among whom He was sending them — 
the men who should deliver them up to the councils 
and scourge them in their synagogues? Certainly 
(200) 



NAMES WRITTEN IN HEAVEN. 201 

not ; but He Himself would see to it that their 
wants were supplied and their lives preserved. He 
sent them out ; His presence went with them ; His 
power was exerted through them, and above them 
was His own everlasting arm to guard them, guide 
them, provide for them, and keep them in safety. 
Thus early were they taught practically to live lives 
of faith on the Son of God. 

Luke, in his tenth chapter, tells us that " after 
these things the Lord appointed other seventy, and 
sent them two and two before His face into every 
city and place whither He Himself would come." 
We know not the names of these seventy men, nor 
whether this was their first and only distinct com- 
mission ; but we may be very sure that they were 
true believers in Jesus. They too were sent out 
without purse or scrip, and in all respects their in- 
structions were similar to what the Master had 
given to the twelve. Whether He sent the twelve 
out two and two we are not informed ; but proba- 
bly not. Every man, therefore, of these seventy, 
had a companion to strengthen and cheer him in 
his arduous work of evangelization. Of the suc- 
cess of the twelve we have no distinct account ; but 
the mission of the seventy seems to have been a 
grand success. 

How long they travelled from city to city pro- 
claiming the coming kingdom and carrying healing 
and life and blessing to the people we are not in- 
formed. Probably theirs was a work of only a few 
days. We are told, however, that they returned 
again with joy, saying : " Lord, even the devils are 
subject unto us through Thy name." They seem to 



202 GATHERED SHEAVES. 

have been greatly elated, perhaps unduly so, be- 
cause the Lord had given them power over those 
foul and cruel spirits or demons who, while He was 
a man amongst men, were permitted to take posses- 
sion of many unhappy mortals, depriving them of 
their own proper rationality, and inflicting upon 
them the miseries of fiends. This demoniacal posses- 
sion was common just at that time. It prevailed 
like an epidemic ; for we read in the Gospels of 
many cases, a few of which only are particularly 
mentioned. To say that these demoniacal posses- 
sions were nothing more than cases of deranged in- 
tellect — what we now call insanity — is attempting 
to be wise above what is written. In Christ man- 
kind had God with them in His own proper person ; 
in these unhappy people they had, at the same time, 
Satan and his emissaries with them in their own 
persons. It is, to be sure, a fearful thought ; but if 
we take the words of the evangelists in their simple 
verity we can come to no other conclusion. In the 
Acts of the Apostles we have only one or two 
cases — just the last dregs, as it were, of this infernal 
invasion. 

But these seventy humble disciples, who had no 
further official place in the kingdom of heaven, were 
overjoyed to think that through the name of Jesus of 
Nazareth they could send these terrible spirits back 
to their dark abode. Then Jesus said unto them, 
" I beheld Satan as lightning fall from heaven." This 
great saying may reach back to the time when 
Satan and his rebellious followers were cast out of 
heaven and consigned to the place prepared for 
them ; but doubtless it reaches forward to the time 



NAMES WRITTEN IN HEAVEN. 203 

when the works of the devil shall be utterly de- 
stroyed. After a few more cheering words to those 
faithful men, He added : " Rejoice not that the 
spirits are subject unto you ; but rather rejoice that 
your names are written in heaven." His words, 
" Rejoice not that the spirits are subject unto you," 
are not to be understood as forbidding them to re- 
joice at all in their triumph over these evil spirits ; 
but to rejoice not so much in that as in the far 
more important fact that their names are written in 
heaven. Their power over demons, their ability to 
heal diseases, and even to call the dead to life, were 
as nothing in comparison with having their names 
enrolled in the Lamb's book of life. 

Christians of the present time are inclined to re- 
gard their brethren of a former age, who were en- 
dowed with miraculous powers, as peculiar favorites 
of Heaven, more highly privileged than are any 
now living. But this is a mistake, Jesus Himself 
being judge. The name of the poorest, the weak- 
est believer is written in heaven ; and in that record 
they have more honor, more cause of joy, than 
would the power to expel demons, or call the dead 
back to life, give them. It was very kind on the 
part of our blessed Lord to put on record what He 
said to those good men who had been out for a few 
days in His service, clothed with His own miracu- 
lous power, and who on their return, were so elated, 
so glad, that even the devils were subject unto 
them through His name. He let them know that 
they had aground of joy immeasurably greater than 
that, great as that really was ; but of which at the 
moment they probably thought but little — a ground 



204 GATHERED SHEAVES. 

of rejoicing which they shared equally with both 
the greatest and the least of the children of God of 
all generations. 

Jesus spoke with calmness, and yet with the ut- 
most positiveness, of a great fact — "Your names are 
written in heaven ! " He did not say, "Your names 
will be written in heaven," but they are written. 
There stand those names as God's Family Record 
of His children. No power in all the universe, 
" neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor principali- 
ties, nor powers, nor things present, nor things to 
come, nor height, nor depth, nor any other creature " 
shall be able to erase that writing, or blot out the 
memory of " one of the least of these my brethren." 

It is very strange that people who know, or ought 
to know, that they believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, 
and who, knowing this, know that their names are 
written in heaven, suffer the trifling things of this 
life, whether gains or losses, successes or reverses, 
the pleasures or the pains of life, the kindnesses or 
the injuries that they meet with, to have such 
effect upon them, and so disquiet them. We have 
seen that these seventy good men whom Jesus sent 
out were too much elated at the success which their 
Lord had given them, so that He had to moderate 
their joy, not by rebuking it, but by drawing their 
attention to a ground of joy which was incompara- 
bly higher and better. So let all who believe mod- 
erate the joys and sorrows of life by the sweet and 
calm reflection that their names are written in 
heaven. Earth has no honor, no profit, no success, 
no felicity equal to this. That name written there 
is our title-deed to all that our infinite, eternal, and 



NAMES WRITTEN IN HEAVEN. 205 

loving Father is able to bestow upon us ; for it is 
written, "All things are yours, whether Paul, or 
Apollos, or Cephas, or the world, or life, or death, 
or things present, or things to come, all are yours, 
and ye are Christ's, and Christ is God's." 




THE WITHERED TREE. 

jlEREIN is my Father glorified, that ye 
bear much fruit," said Jesus to His dis- 
ciples in His last conversation with them 
before He suffered ; and what He said to them He 
says to every one of His professed disciples. He 
often used the word " fruit " to express the result, 
the effect, the product of the principles which He 
through His word and Spirit plants in His field, 
which He says is the world, and in the hearts of all 
who hear that word. In the parable of the sower 
this subject is very clearly set forth. In Gal. v. 22, 
23, the fruit of the Spirit is set forth in beautiful 
variety and clearness, thus : " Love, joy, peace, 
long-suffering, gentleness, goodness, faith, meek- 
ness, temperance." In the revised version, " gentle- 
ness " is translated " kindness"; "faith " is "faith- 
fulness," that is, to speak nothing but the truth, 
and to perform all our engagements ; and " tem- 
perance" is made "self-control" in the margin. 
The last word has a far wider range of meaning 
than merely abstinence from intoxicants. 

Many years ago I had a simple-hearted and devout 
friend whom I occasionally met. Often, on taking 
leave of him, he would put a few tracts in my hand 
for distribution, with the earnest injunction — al- 
ways in the same words — " Do all the good you 
can." These words of that good man made a 
strong impression upon me, for they embrace the 
(206) 



THE WITHERED TREE. 207 

whole field of good works, and I have ever wished 
to make them the rule of my life. My good friend 
departed to a better world more than forty years 
ago. He was what men call poor; but he was rich 
in faith and good works, and, I doubt not, found 
much treasure in heaven when he arrived there. 

But I fear I am wandering from the subject I had 
in my mind when I began, which was to speak of 
that fruitless fig-tree which Jesus blasted with His 
word. It seems like a little and unimportant in- 
cident among the events which crowded to fulness 
that wondrous life ; but when we come to ponder 
its awful import, as it applies to every one of us, 
we discover in it something well calculated to make 
us tremble. Matthew (xxi. 19) narrates the incident 
thus : 

" And when He saw a fig-tree in the way He came to it 
and found nothing thereon but leaves only, and said unto 
it, Let no fruit grow on thee henceforward forever. And 
presently the fig-tree withered away." 

Why did He take such an interest in that tree ? 
The preceding verse tells us. He had spent the 
night at Bethany, and " in the morning, as He re- 
turned into the city, He hungered." This shows us 
that He was subject to all the conditions of weak- 
ness and want common to that humanity which He 
had assumed, and that He really needed the fruit 
which He sought. So far the narrative was simply 
personal, and had that been all, the matter was 
hardly worthy of mention. But that He should kill 
the tree with His word, and so effectually blast it 
that, as Mark tells us, it was dried up from the roots 



208 GATHERED SHEAVES. 

the next morning, is a miracle so unlike the general 
miracles of our Lord, that it seems to stand alone. 
Was He angry with the tree because it had disap- 
pointed Him? That v/ere a low conception of the 
act or of its design, and would exhibit that all-per- 
fect One as giving way to a blind and senseless pas- 
sion against a thing totally devoid of responsibility, 
or of a knowledge of what had been done to it. 

But let us regard that tree as an emblem of a 
professed disciple of Christ ; of one who ought to 
bear good fruit, but does not ; one who bears 
" leaves only," nothing else ; of one who has a 
place among the disciples of Christ, and whose name 
is on the church rolls, who is found statedly and 
punctually in his or her place in the sanctuary and at 
the Lord's table ; one, in short, who has all the ap- 
pearance of a good fig-tree, but yet bears no fruit — all 
these other things being " leaves only " — then we 
shall begin to see the awful import of the narrative. 

We are told that Jesus was hungry and needed 
the fruit. Is He hungry now? Yes, indeed; and 
He will continue to hunger as long as there are on 
the earth poor and suffering and benighted ones for 
whom He died. " I was an hungered and ye gave 
me meat," He will say to His fruit-bearing people at 
the great day. " Where? when?" it will be asked. 
He will then answer, " Inasmuch as ye have done it 
unto one of the least of these my brethren, ye have 
done it unto me." Thus does He identify Himself 
with His brethren of the human race even to the 
least and the lowest. If they are hungry, He hun- 
gers ; if they are sick and in prison, so is He. 

" Go ye into all the world and preach the Gospel 



THE WITHERED TREE. 209 

to every creature," is the general order of our Com- 
mander-in-Chief ; and to-day every door on earth 
is open to those who are inclined to distribute the 
bread of life to the perishing. By this opening of 
doors which the Church could not open, the Lord 
indicates to His people that He is " an hungered " 
beyond anything ever before known. 

To send the Gospel to those who have long sat 
in darkness is one way to bear fruit ; but it is only 
one among many. To " do all the good we can " 
— as my old friend said, to supply the physical 
wants of the needy, to teach the young and the 
ignorant ; to give a kind word or an encouraging 
smile to the desponding or the sorrowing ; to do all 
Ave can to render home what home should be ; to be 
diligent in business, just and upright in our deal- 
ings, and contented with our lot — all these are 
fruits of the Spirit. But Paul tells us that the man 
of God, the Christian, must be thoroughly furnished 
unto all good works ; and Peter in his second 
epistle gives the rule in these words : " Add to your 
faith virtue (firmness, courage), and to virtue knowl- 
edge, and to knowledge temperance (self-control), 
and to temperance patience, and to patience godli- 
ness, and to godliness brotherly kindness, and to 
brotherly kindness charity." Observe : Of this 
beautiful cluster — if we view it botanically, or this 
grand edifice, if viewed architecturally — faith is the 
root, the foundation. Apart from that, mere moral 
virtues are but branches separated from the parent 
vine, and must wither and die, or drop off as leaves 
do, and be blown away. All real fruit has its 
source and vitality in Christ. " Apart from me/' 
14 



210 GATHERED SHEAVES. 

says He, "ye can do nothing." We can bear no 
fruit that He can gather and garner up into ever- 
lasting life. " Leaves only," is the decision which 
He in His word renders of all such things. 

Until Jesus visited it, searching for fruit, that 
fig-tree looked all right. It was probably rich in 
foliage, and very likely those who passed by ad- 
mired it, just as people admired the Pharisees, and 
supposed that they were very holy men. But they 
had leaves only ; and unseen by human eye the bolt 
of judicial wrath descended upon them. To them 
was said what was said to the tree-- " Let no fruit 
grow on thee henceforward forever!" It was 
awfully verified in their case ; but not more awfully 
than it will be in the case of all formal, fruitless 
professors. The Pharisees thought : " We have 
Abraham to our father " — therefore all is well. The 
others suppose that because they are members of the 
church in good standing, they are safe. Even after 
the same fatal sentence shall go forth in the councils 
of heaven, such people will continue to please them- 
selves with, the notion that the celestial gates will be 
open to them when they go over the river ; and even 
at the last moment of mortal life they will comfort 
their mourning friends with the same assurance. 
This, I know, sounds harsh and terrible ; but not 
more terrible than these words of Him before whose 
judgment-seat we must all stand : " Many will say 
unto me in that day, Lord, Lord, have we not proph- . 
esicd in Thy name? and in Thy name have cast out 
devils ? and in Thy name have done many wonderful 
works? And then I will profess unto them, I never 
knew you ; depart from me, ye that work iniquity." 




THE PEARL OF GREAT PRICE. 

||T was because of the beauty, durability, 
purity, and high commercial value of the 
pearl that our Lord chose it in one of His 
parables as an emblem of the kingdom of heaven 
(Matthew xiii. 45, 46). As the parable is very brief, 
let us quote it : " Again, the kingdom of heaven is 
like unto a merchantman seeking goodly pearls, 
who, when he had found one pearl of great price, 
went and sold all that he had and bought it." 

I had always regarded that as expressive of the 
action of an awakened and inquiring sinner when 
he first perceives the way of salvation through the 
atonement of a crucified Redeemer, and who is 
ready to give up everything else for an interest in 
Him — to sell all that he has, as the Saviour ex- 
presses it. And if we take the words of Christ to 
the young man who had great possessions — " Go 
thy way, sell whatsoever thou hast and give to the 
poor, and thou shalt have treasure in heaven ; and 
come, take up the cross and follow me " — we see 
that there is good ground for this exegesis. That 
young man did then and there find the pearl of 
great price, but he declined to buy it. 

But a few days ago I heard from the pulpit an- 
other exegesis which thrilled my heart as new and 
great thoughts are apt to do. In that exposition, 
not the awakened and anxious sinner, but Christ 

(211) 



212 GATHERED SHEAVES. 

Himself, was represented by the merchantman 
seeking goodly pearls, and that in this world He 
found one of such amazing value that He gladly 
sold all that He had and bought it. Although He 
was rich, infinitely rich, this purchase made Him 
poor. For it He gave up the glories of heaven, and 
endured the toils, privations, and sorrows of earth, 
and, more than that, He sacrificed His life. God 
alone is able to estimate the price paid for that 
pearl. 

He did buy it, and it is His now. Truly, its 
price was great. Neither the arithmetic of earth 
nor of heaven can compute it. Was the pearl He 
bought worth the price He paid for it? Infinite 
wisdom, as well as infinite goodness, had a part in 
this great transaction ; therefore there can be no 
doubt as to the value of the pearl. It would not 
have been bought at all had it not been worth all 
that the Divine and infinitely wise Merchantman 
paid for it. 

And what is that pearl ? The Divine author of 
that parable calls it the kingdom of heaven. It is 
that "many" for whom He gave His life a ran- 
som — His people, His ransomed ones, His Church. 
It is the soul of man, whether contemplated indi- 
vidually or collectively — yours and mine, dear 
reader, no matter how humble a view we may 
have of ourselves. To as many as receive Him, 
to them gives He power to become the sons of God. 
Now let us see what John says about that rank and 
dignity, and consequently that value : " Behold, 
what manner of love the Father hath bestowed up- 
on us, that we should be called the sons of God." 



THE PEARL OF GREAT PRICE. 213 

Many Christians are in the habit of thinking and 
speaking of themselves as worthless beings, and 
mistake that depreciation of themselves for humil- 
ity. It is not that, but a reflection upon the wis- 
dom and goodness of their Maker, both in their 
creation and in their redemption. Is that pearl 
which Christ purchased at so great a price a worth- 
less thing ? It verges upon blasphemy to say so. 
True, the sinner apart from Christ is a wretched 
being, but he is not worthless ; and in Christ he is 
exalted to a rank to which probably no other crea- 
ture can attain, and that rank is altogether based 
upon that purchase of which we have been speak- 
ing. It is therefore bad, offensive to God, and in- 
jurious to ourselves to underrate the value of those 
for whom Christ died. Let us rather dwell with 
rapture upon the fact that we are worth all that 
the great Merchantman paid for that pearl — that 
precious thing for which He gave up all that He 
had. 



THAT OFT-QUOTED TEXT. 



HOSE simple-hearted parents who brought 
their infant children to Jesus that He 
might touch them, were doing a greater 
work than they knew, and were impelled and 
guided by a higher wisdom than their own. It 
was, doubtless, a concerted matter among a few 
neighboring families of believers in Jesus, and they 
appear to have come together. The children were 
not diseased; but the parents — possibly only the 
mothers — had a strong desire that those healing 
hands, whose merest touch brought health and life 
to the sick and the dying, should be laid upon the 
heads of their infant offspring. We know not that 
their faith rose so high as to take hold on eternal 
life, nor does it matter. They were graciously ac- 
cepted, approved, and blessed above all that they 
could ask or think. 

When the little company arrived where Jesus 
was, the disciples, like a watchful outer guard, 
would inquire of them what they wanted, and 
when told they rebuked them, and, it may be, 
treated them unkindly, as though what they sought 
was something too childish, too trifling — an un- 
warranted liberty with their great Master, an as- 
sault upon His dignity, and an interference with 
His proper worth, which must not be tolerated. 
Now let us see what a mistake they made. 
(214) 



THAT OFT-QUOTED TEXT. 21 5 

" When Jesus saw it He was much displeased, and said 
unto them, Suffer the little children to come unto me and 
forbid them not, for of such is the kingdom of God " ; (and 
then He added) " Verily I say unto you, whosoever shall 
' not receive the kingdom of God as a little child, he shall 
not enter therein. And He took them up in His arms, put 
His hands upon them and blessed them" (Mark x.). 

This tableau — so simple, so humble, so sublime — ■ 
was the product neither of human wisdom nor of 
parental affection, although the latter was made to 
blend with it as a necessary and affecting factor. 
In this way Christ, in His adorable wisdom and 
power, set forth at once His loving-kindness to 
children as such, and, at the same time, that great 
principle in the kingdom of grace expressed by 
Himself in these words : " Except ye be converted 
and become as little children, ye shall not enter 
into the kingdom of heaven." He called His dis- 
ciples by that endearing term just before He suf- 
fered (John xiii. 33), and repeatedly He uses the 
term " little ones." Paul calls the Galatians " my 
little children," and four times does John in his 
first epistle use the same tender term. 

Let us, in illustration of this great principle, look 
at two cases where strong, resolute, and self-willed 
men were turned into little children by the sw r eetly 
subduing power of divine grace. 

Peter, during the time he was with his Lord, was 
a rough, hardy fisherman, honest and true, but im- 
petuous, impulsive, and self-reliant. He seemed, 
indeed, to act as if he felt himself to be the cham- 
pion of his more gentle Master, as we learn from 
His rebuking him for declaring that His enemies 



2l6 GATHERED SHEAVES. 

would put Him to death, saying, " Be it far from 
Thee, Lord. This shall not be unto Thee." There 
was not much of the spirit of a little child there. 
Again : " I will go with Thee to prison and to 
death." And again : " I will lay down my life for 
Thy sake." And again : " Though all men should 
deny Thee, yet will not I." These bold and con- 
fident expressions — yet as honest as they were 
bold — are not much like the utterances of a little 
child. At length the Master is arrested and offers 
no resistance ; but Peter — brave, as a soldier is ac- 
counted brave — drew his sword and cut off a man's 
ear. That was anything but the act of a little 
child. Not being allowed to fight, he fled, for he 
had courage for nothing else. But his sincere love 
for his Master would not suffer him to stay away, 
so he followed Him afar off to the palace of the 
high-priest. There his courage failed utterly, and 
thrice he denied that he knew Him. The last time 
his old rough character broke out, and he began to 
curse and swear. So he fell as far as a man could 
fall, short of absolute perdition. 

But then the cock crew, and " the Lord turned 
and looked upon Peter, and Peter went out and 
wept bitterly." Then followed the awful tragedy 
of the next day ; then the dark three days that the 
Lord lay in Joseph's tomb ; then the agitation 
caused by the rumors of His resurrection. The 
strong, self-reliant Peter is utterly broken down and 
has become as a little child. Having nothing else 
to do, he and some of his fellow-disciples go a-fish- 
ing. They toiled all night, but without success. 
In the morning a stranger is seen standing on the 



THAT OFT-QUOTED TEXT. 217 

shore of the lake who directs them to cast the net 
on the right side of the ship. They obey, and im- 
mediately the net is full of fishes. " It is the 
Lord ! " cries John, and instantly, regardless of 
fishes, net, and everything else, Peter plunges into 
the water and swims ashore to his much-loved 
Master. For the first time the rough, strong, im- 
petuous sailor is a little child and acts like one. 
The old Simon is utterly broken down, and Jesus 
could have said then, as He said on the first occa- 
sion, " Suffer the little child to come unto me and 
forbid him not." And how like a child He meets 
him and talks with him — " Simon, son of Jonas, 
lovest thou me?" " Yea, Lord, Thou knowest 
that I love Thee," is the childlike reply. Three 
times the question is asked, and three times the 
same unfaltering answer is returned. Thus Peter, 
after three years of tuition and discipline, has be- 
come a little child, and is in the kingdom of God, 
prepared to feed the lambs and the sheep as his 
Lord bade him ; and thenceforward he stands be- 
fore us among the grandest and most intrepid 
Christian heroes the world ever saw. Up to that 
time his rugged natural manhood kept the little 
child down, as is sadly true of multitudes of real 
Christians of the present day. 

Saul of Tarsus was as honest a man as Peter ; 
but he came to the conclusion that Jesus of Naza- 
reth, who had recently suffered death as a male- 
factor, was an impostor, and in his impetuous zeal 
for Israel and Israel's God he conceived it to be his 
duty to crush out the sect that bore His name. He 
" breathed out threatenings and slaughter." Satan 



218 GATHERED SHEAVES. 

was ruling him and using him at the very time 
when, to use his own language, he " verily thought 
he was doing God service." Every Bible reader is 
familiar with the wonderful story of his conversion 
on the road to Damascus. Never was there, a man 
more unlike a little child than Saul was when Jesus 
let His glory shine upon him, and spoke to him in 
a tone at once of authority and expostulation, 
" Saul ! Saul ! why persecutest thou me ? " In- 
stantly the mad persecutor became a little child. 
Awe, reverence, and submission dictated his first 
words, " Who art Thou, Lord ? " and when the as- 
tounding answer came, " I am Jesus whom thou 
persecutest," the little child, liberated from the 
clutches of the evil one, ran to Him, if not at first 
with joy, at least with a spirit of filial obedience, 
crying — " Lord, what wilt Thou have me to do ? " 
The Lord had work for him, and grandly and faith- 
fully he did it. No man ever left a more splendid 
record on earth, none wears a more glorious crown 
in heaven. The transformation of Peter from a 
strong, self-poised, natural man to a little child was 
the work of time and of varied and sore discipline ; 
that of Saul of Tarsus was instantaneous. 

The words of Christ are still living and authori- 
tative words, " Suffer the little children to come 
unto me, and forbid them not." They apply to 
children in years, as at first ; but they also apply to 
us all ; for during all our lives we are or ought to 
be little children, and to suffer the simple trust, the 
humble, confiding faith, the meek submission, the 
outgushing affection of children to go out to our 
Heavenly Father, without a shadow of doubt that 



THAT OFT-QUOTED TEXT. 219 

He is our Father, and that He loves us. Each of 
us has such a child under his or her control ; let us 
beware, then, lest we incur the displeasure of the 
Saviour, as the disciples did, by rebuking these 
childish outgoings of the soul toward Him. We, 
in our pride, think it more becoming to consecrate 
to Him our learning, our talents, our wealth, our 
influence — some great thing, as poor Peter imag- 
ined his sword to be — but His command is, " Suf- 
fer the little children " — simple trust, humble and 
unquestioning faith, deep-felt dependence, pure 
love — " to come unto me, and forbid them not, for 
of such is the kingdom of God." 

In Isaiah's magnificent imagery we have a picture 
not only of the world at large in the latter day, but 
of each regenerated human soul. " The wolf also 
shall dwell with the lamb, and the leopard shall lie 
down with the kid, and the calf and the young lion 
and the fatling together ; and a little child shall 
lead them." All the warring elements of oar na- 
ture brought into harmony and placed under the 
control of that which is esteemed the weakest and 
most defenceless of any. Let Christians, therefore, 
be careful how they crush back, and rebuke and 
forbid the growth, advance, and controlling power 
of the little child that is in them. 




'THE SABBATH WAS MADE FOR MAN." 

jlHIS is one of those great sayings of our Lord, 
which, although as simple as language can 
be, has a length and breadth and depth 
and height the extent of which the human mind 
can not fully measure. 

Jesus in these words distinctly recognizes the 
Sabbath as an existing and permanent institution — 
one which was made by the Creator and Governor 
of the world for the good and well-being of man — 
not a particular set of men, not for the Jews only, 
but for all men from the first to the last. God 
made it as He made the light which shines upon 
us, the atmosphere we breathe, the food we eat, the 
raiment we wear, because He saw that it is one of 
our necessities. 

In Genesis ii. 3, we read : " And God blessed the 
seventh day and sanctified it." This was before the 
fall. It was as early as it could be in the history of 
the human race, when a single pair were the sole 
occupants of the earth. Thus was it ordained a 
perpetual periodical rest, blessed as such and made 
holy. It was made more than a mere cessation 
from toil. It was made a holy day ; not an idle 
day, not a holiday nor a play day ; but a day when 
man would be free from work-day labors and cares, 
and have the privilege of holding closer and more 
undisturbed communion with his God. It was made 
to be a day of bodily rest and of spiritual activity — 
(220) 



"THE SABBATH WAS MADE FOR MAN." 221 

a sanctified rest. Hence the command : " Remem- 
ber the Sabbath day to keep it holy." 

Although we know not that the law of the Sab- 
bath was ever put into a statutory form until it was 
embodied in the ten commandments written by the 
Supreme Lawgiver Himself on Sinai, yet we do 
know that it was recognized as a divine law before 
that time. When the manna began to fall around 
the camp of Israel the Sabbath was an existing in- 
stitution, observed by both the Giver and the recip- 
ients of that miraculous supply of food, and is 
spoken of in the easy terms in which men speak of 
something with which they are quite familiar. A 
double supply came down on the sixth morning of 
the week ; none on the seventh. This was before 
the decalogue was given. From this we see that 
the observance of the Sabbath was a well-estab- 
lished usage before the fourth commandment had 
ever sounded in human ears. 

Its place in the law is very significant. When it 
shall be a matter of indifference how many gods we 
worship ; when we may without sin make to our- 
selves graven images and fall down and worship 
them ; when we may take the name of the Lord 
our God in vain without incurring guilt ; when we 
may without blame treat our parents with contempt 
and neglect ; when we may slay our fellow-man, or 
steal what belongs to him, or indulge in all impur- 
ity of heart and life, or bear false witness against 
our neighbor, or covet with an evil and selfish covet- 
ousness that which is his, then, and not before, may 
we with impunity cease to remember the Sabbath 
day to keep it holy ; for God has joined all these 



222 GATHERED SHEAVES. 

laws together in one irrevocable code ; and what 
He has put together let not man put asunder. All 
the ten commandments were made for man and for 
his good, and are of perpetual obligation. Jesus 
Himself tells us that the Sabbath was made for 
man ; how then dare we tear it out of its place in 
the decalogue, and assign to it a place among the 
ceremonial laws of the Mosaic economy? 

That the Sabbath was made for man is a truth 
which requires no further argument to prove than 
the date of its ordination. It was not in the days 
of Moses, nor of Jacob, nor of Abraham, nor of 
Noah, but was probably on the first day of the first 
man. It was when " God blessed the seventh day 
and sanctified it." It was a natural law, a universal 
law, a provision made for man's benefit, one which 
his constitution both physical and moral required — 
a periodical rest, a sanctified or holy rest, a division 
of time which gave six days to the labors of earth 
and one to the rest and enjoyment of heaven. It 
is an ordination which all men need, as much to-day 
as in the years before the flood, one which serves as 
a link to bind man to his God, as well as to relieve 
his physical nature from the pressure of perpetual 
toil. It supplies at once a natural and a religious 
want ; and being fixed at specified intervals of labor 
and rest, it naturally leads to social convocations 
for worship. All work at once ; all rest at once ; and 
being sanctified by God Himself, it necessarily, when 
properly observed, becomes a day of sacred rest. 

In the history of Noah, while he was shut up in 
the ark, we see that he was in the habit of dividing 
time into periods of seven days, which shows that 



"the sabbath was made for man. 223 

he remembered the Sabbath day and doubtless kept 
it holy. The opening clause of the fourth command- 
ment is an injunction to keep in remembrance the 
then ancient usage of the Sabbath. It was not a 
new commandment ; nor was there one in the en- 
tire decalogue which could be regarded as new, 
although they had not until then -been embodied- 
in a written statute. All good' men from Adam to 
Moses regulated their lives by the same principles 
which are found in the ten commandments, just as 
good men of the present day do. "Those principles 
are as unalterable as their Author and as are the 
laws of the universe. All of them were made for the 
benefit of man as well as for the glory of God ; and 
as well may we try to weaken the force of any of 
the other nine as of the fourth. To do so is to rob 
man of one of the blessings and benefits which God 
has given him. 

But for the Sabbath to be what the Divine Law- 
giver designed it to be, it must be, as the prophet 
expresses it, "a delight, honorable." It must not 
be as a gloomy cell in which a slave is shut up when 
he is not at work. The Pharisees insisted upon a 
slavish observance ; Jesus, by His example, showed 
how His freemen should observe it, by making it a 
day of holy activity in doing good to the souls and 
bodies of men, thus glorifying their Father in 
heaven, and enjoying Him — using it, in short, as 
something which was made for their highest good. 



MARTHA AND MARY. 

IOT one of all the sacred writers equals Luke 
as a word-painter. Take, for example, the ac- 
count he gives us of that dinner party in the 
house of a Pharisee named Simon, where Jesus was 
an invited guest, and where a woman — a fallen 
woman, a sinner, as Simon called her, but now 
deeply penitent and grateful — entered with a box 
of precious ointment, silently knelt at His feet, 
which in the recumbent posture customary at meals 
in those days, were easily approachable, washed the 
dust off them with a flood of tears, then anointed 
them with the ointment, and then received from 
her Lord gracious words of pardon and commenda- 
tion. The scene is depicted in such graphic colors 
that we can see it all in the mere reading of the 
simple narrative. By a wretched blunder of dull 
theologians long ago — perhaps in the dark ages — 
this penitent woman and Mary Magdalene were 
made identical, and that notion has come down 
even to the present day. In the Bible now lying 
before me, in the summary heading of that chapter 
(the seventh) the name of Mary Magdalene is intro- 
duced, although from beginning to end of the in- 
spired text there is not the most remote allusion to 
that noble and distinguished friend of our Lord. 
Thus has her unspotted reputation rested for cen- 
turies under the stigma of having been a fallen 
woman in her earlier life. 
(224) 



MARTHA AND MARY. 225 

As another example of Luke's word-painting, 
take his brief mention of the raising of the son of 
the widow of Nain. Short and simple as it is, the 
scene is vividly brought before the attentive reader; 
and in all literature, sacred or profane, nothing more 
graphic, pathetic, and touching can be found. 

But Luke gives us yet another scene at the close 
of his tenth chapter, upon which I propose to dwell 
a little more at length, and then pass on to another 
scene in the same household which John gives us in 
his peculiar and inimitable style. Luke says : 

" Now it came to pass, as they went, that He entered into 
a certain village ; and a certain woman named Martha re- 
ceived Him into her house. And she had a sister called 
Mary, who also sat at Jesus' feet and heard His word. But 
Martha was cumbered about much serving, and came to 
Him and said, Lord, dost Thou not care that my sister hath 
left me to serve alone ? Bid her therefore that she help 
me. And Jesus answered and said unto her, Martha, Mar- 
tha, thou art careful and troubled about many things ; but 
one thing is needful ; and Mary hath chosen that good part 
which shall not be taken away from her ! " 

How vividly, and in what strong contrast, are the 
characters of these two excellent women set before 
us in this short passage ! The one was generous, 
active, energetic, and careful — anxious to prepare 
for her honored guest the very best in her power ; 
the other was thoughtful, contemplative, devout, 
and eager to catch every word that fell from the 
lips of Him whom she adored as her Lord and Mas- 
ter. Yet they were both good women, both were 
warm friends and disciples of Jesus. John, in words 
of touching simplicity tells us that " Jesus loved Mar- 

!5 



226 GATHERED SHEAVES. 

tha, and her sister, and Lazarus." This is enough. 
It is not for us to sit in judgment upon them and 
say that Mary was better than her sister. But we 
can easily perceive that they were Christians of 
different types. The rugged oak and the wide- 
spreading elm are just as truly things to be admired 
as are the rose, the hyacinth, or the lily. So such 
strong, rugged, and energetic characters as Martha 
are as much to be admired, and are perhaps quite 
as useful in the family, the church, and the world, 
as are the less rugged but more beautiful characters, 
such as Mary was. 

In this brief narrative we get a glimpse of the 
more private life of our Lord. With that humble 
household in Bethany He had one of His homes, 
His resting-places ; for He Himself had not where 
to lay His head. Often, doubtless, after His labors 
in the temple and other public places all day, teach- 
ing and healing, He would walk out to that house 
in Bethany and there find that peace and rest which 
He so much needed, and find a little pleasant and 
congenial company. We are told that He loved 
every member of that family, which was composed 
of a brother and two sisters. The parents no doubt 
were both dead. Let us not imagine that this in- 
teresting family were abjectly poor; neither were 
they wealthy, otherwise Martha would not have 
been so worried because Mary neglected to assist 
her in the kitchen. Very likely the two did all 
their own work. What business Lazarus followed, 
we are not informed. 

At one time, when crossing the sea of Galilee in 
a fishing-boat, Jesus lay down and slept ; but when 



MARTHA AND MARY. 227 

He went to that home of His in Bethany, He did 
not lie down and sleep, but conversed freely ; and 
from the brief records which we have of His 
conversations with His chosen friends and dis- 
ciples, we may form some impression of the rich- 
ness of the discourse which so fascinated Mary that 
she forgot that her sister was serving alone. We 
have no record, however, of that conversation. 
Jesus was eminently social. He was no ascetic. 
Solemn and serious He certainly was ; but that 
seriousness was fascinating and cheering — not in 
the slightest degree morose — so that we are told 
that "the common people heard Him gladly." Of 
Him we may safely say, as Paul said of himself and 
fellow-laborers, He was " sorrowful, yet always re- 
joicing." Of His pleasant social talk we have an 
example in Matt. xvii. 25. Peter encountered in 
Capernaum some collectors of tribute. After tell- 
ing them that his Master did pay tribute, he went 
into the house where Jesus was. Knowing what 
had taken place, Jesus asked him : " What thinkest 
thou, Simon ? of whom do the kings of the earth 
take custom or tribute?" I only cite this to show 
the easy familiarity which existed between Him and 
His disciples. I pass over the wonderful miracle 
by which He procured the money wherewith to pay 
that tax. 

While I think that Mary was somewhat to blame 
for leaving Martha to serve alone, I am sure that 
the latter was still more blamable for the exhibition 
of petulance and ill-temper which she displayed, 
and still more for the disrespectful words which she 
addressed to her Lord and Master. In His reply 



228 GATHERED SHEAVES. 

there is a very kind and gentle rebuke, and at the 
same time a vindication of Mary's conduct, in which 
a great saying of universal application is embodied — 
" One thing is needful/' Mary was obeying the 
great precept : " Seek first the kingdom of God and 
His righteousness, and all these things shall be add- 
ed unto you." Mary saw that that was her oppor- 
tunity, and embraced it. Martha probably would 
have done better to have sat, as Mary did, at Jesus' 
feet, and let the supper wait for a little while. 

In this short and simple narrative there is an ex- 
haustless mine of practical instruction as to the 
conduct of the Christian life ; for too many of us 
are like Martha, anxious and troubled about many 
things to the detriment of our highest well-being — 
building wood, hay, and stubble, when we ought 
to be building gold, silver, precious stones — laying 
up treasures in heaven. Yet Martha was doing 
what she was fully persuaded was her duty, and in 
so doing she was prompted by a noble and generous 
impulse. But it was duty on a lower plane than 
that which her sister was trying to do. 

Some time afterward Lazarus, who was probably 
the mainstay of this family, fell sick, very sick. 
Jesus was away beyond Jordan at the time. The 
sisters sent a message to Him which, for faith, ten- 
derness, and pathos stands unparalleled — " Lord, 
behold, he whom Thou lovest is sick." This shows 
us how Jesus esteemed Lazarus; and no higher en- 
comium could have been uttered. It shows us, 
moreover, the confidence which these sisters had 
in the kindness of their well-known friend and fre- 
quent guest ; for they made no request. The mere 



MARTHA AND MARY. 229 

knowledge that Lazarus was sick, they fondly hoped, 
would be sure to bring Him to them with all pos- 
sible speed. They knew that He had healed many 
sick ones, and surely He will heal Lazarus, His be- 
loved friend Lazarus, the moment He arrives. But 
it pleased their Divine Friend to put their faith to 
a severe test. Jesus did not come for several days; 
meanwhile Lazarus grew worse and worse until he 
died. Still Jesus did not come. They buried him, 
and after he had lain in the tomb four days, their 
anxiously expected Friend came. Martha, more 
alert than her sister, was the first to learn of His 
approach, and hastened out to meet Him. Was 
there a shade of complaint and chiding in her first 
exclamation : " Lord, if Thou hadst been here my 
brother had not died "? I think there was — and I 
think so because of the grand and sublime response 
of the Saviour to her words — a response so well 
known that I need not rehearse His words here. 
Her grief, deep and sincere as it was, did not ex- 
cite His sensibility or stir His emotions so as to 
disturb His sublime calmness. But when Mary 
came she fell down at His feet in overwhelming 
sorrow, uttering the same words that her sister had 
used. But mark the difference in the effect of the 
words — words which the sisters had probably ut- 
tered many times between themselves since their 
brother's death. Her anguish and tears, and her 
uncomplaining devotion evinced by her falling down 
at His feet in meek submission, were too much even 
for Him. For once He seems to have been over- 
come ; for He groaned in the spirit, was troubled 
and wept. We can not understand how One, clothed 



230 GATHERED SHEAVES. 

with almighty power, and who knew that in a few 
minutes He would send a flood of joy into the 
hearts of these afflicted sisters, and have His friend 
Lazarus, whom He loved, standing by Him in life 
and health, could have been so overcome. But it is 
a part of " the old, old story of Jesus and His love," 
which all genuine believers know to be true, and 
which, old as it is, is still and ever will be fresh. 




'TAKE MY YOKE UPON YOU." 

j|HE word yoke as here used is the emblem 
or badge of servitude. It is not a synonym 
of cross, but of cheerful, voluntary service. 
It is well before we discuss the subject to quote the 
compact cluster of gracious sayings with which the 
words set at the head of this article stand connected, 
as found in the last three verses of the eleventh 
chapter of Matthew : " Come unto me, all ye that 
labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. 
Take my yoke upon you, and learn of me ; for I 
am meek and lowly in heart, and ye shall find rest 
unto your souls. For my yoke is easy and my bur- 
den is light." 

Every human being who is capable of action at all 
wears a yoke of servitude of some kind. Not one is 
free. Every yoke is heavy, galling, and frets the 
wearer except that of Christ. It only is light, easy, 
and gives rest and peace to the wearer. All other 
yokes set the wearers in quest of rest, but none is 
found. A thousand things promise satisfaction, and 
are eagerly pursued ; but they always disappoint 
their devotees where they are sought as the chief 
good. They may all be good in their proper places : 
but when they are lifted up so as to become the 
chief end of life they cease to be good ; they are no 
longer satisfying ; they fail to give rest. Wealth is 
good in itself ; but the man who suffers its acqui- 

(231) 



232 GATHERED SHEAVES. 

sition to become his chief object of pursuit becomes 
a slave, and he takes upon him a yoke which be- 
comes heavier and heavier as long as he lives. Suc- 
cess may inflate his pride, as it does in many cases ; 
or it may shrivel up his heart until there is no room 
in it for a generous emotion or a noble aspiration. 
He blocks his way to the kingdom of heaven, so that 
Christ Himself said that it is hard, almost impossi- 
ble, for him to enter. Weary and heavy laden he 
goes through life, and then goes down to darkness 
and death, leaving behind him all upon which his 
heart and hopes had been fixed. This is one of the 
most alluring, one of the most plausible, and yet 
one of the most galling of the yokes that sin ever 
imposed upon the neck of man. 

Ambition is perhaps a nobler yoke than covet- 
ousness, but it is more feverish, more galling, more 
destructive of rest than the other. More of the pride 
of the human heart clusters around it, making it a 
consuming fire which nothing can satisfy. When 
kept in its proper place, in subordination to the law 
of Christ, ambition is a noble attribute of human- 
ity ; but when it is suffered to centre on self and self- 
aggrandizement it is as mean and grovelling a pas- 
sion as covetousness, and is a heavy and oppressive 
burden. The love of pleasure and excitement is 
proof that those who seek such things are weary 
and heavy laden, poor and hungry, restless and un- 
easy, destitute in themselves of the elements of 
rest and satisfaction and joy. They are in the con- 
dition of the prodigal who would fain have filled 
his belly with the husks which the swine did eat — 
food which was unfit for him, and which could 



"TAKE MY YOKE UPON YOU." 233 

afford him no nourishment. See that crowd of 
eager people pressing into the theatre, the opera, 
or the ball-room. Why are they there ? They are 
weary and heavy laden, and are seeking rest. They 
are trying to block up the current of their own 
thoughts, so that they may be relieved for a mo- 
ment from that restlessness and torment which 
hearts separated from the only true source of joy 
always feel. They are like Dives begging for a 
drop of water to cool his tongue. They are seek- 
ing rest where it is not to be found. What they do 
find is not rest, but only forgetfulness. The same 
absence of rest which impels the votaries of what 
is called pleasure to such places drives them to the 
perusal, or, rather, the greedy devouring of exciting 
novels, the writing and publishing of which has 
become a great and lucrative business. It is a 
sad verification of the words of Him who is the 
life of the world where He says : " If a man abide 
not in me he is cast forth as a branch and is with- 
ered." It is to such poor, thoughtless, withered 
ones that He extends the invitation, " Take my 
yoke upon you and learn of me ; for I am meek 
and lowly in heart, and ye shall find rest to your 
souls." 

The man who really and heartily takes Christ's 
yoke upon him, and serves Him with an undivided 
heart, has an inexhaustible source of joy which lifts 
him above the need of all these lower things. The 
blessing of his God upon his labors may result in 
wealth ; but still his better treasure will be in 
heaven ; so that although riches increase, his heart 
will not be set upon them. Should his ambition 



234 GATHERED SHEAVES. 

be gratified by being lifted to high places, he will 
be thankful, and yet feel more deeply his responsi- 
bility. The praise of God will influence him and 
give him joy more than the praise of men ; and he 
will say with Joseph, " God hath made me what I 
am." Should the pleasures of social life surround 
him he will enjoy them with a relish unknown to 
the mere devotee of pleasure, because these things 
will be added to the peace which flows like a river 
of life in his heart. He will laugh as heartily as 
anybody when an occasion to do so arises ; but he 
will never run after the things that are got up for 
that purpose; for good as laughter is in its proper 
place, there is very little true joy in it. Pleasant 
and lively social intercourse with his fellows he can 
enter into with all his heart ; but it will be tem- 
pered with that charity which is kind, which is like 
the great Exemplar, meek and lowly, and which 
esteems others better than himself. This spirit of 
Christ will drive from the heart of woman that vain 
and low ambition which makes her strive to outdo 
her neighbor in dress and ornaments; but she will 
exhibit that charity " which vaunteth not itself, is 
not puffed up, doth not behave itself unseemly "; 
yet in that very way she will excite both admira- 
tion and love. Oh ! Christian woman, this yoke 
which your Saviour exhorts you to take and wear 
is the grandest ornament which God ever made, 
and in His sight it is " of great price." It is very* 
beautiful here ; it will be still more beautiful over 
there ; for you will carry it with you. 



FEEDING THE MULTITUDE. 

|HE common people heard Him gladly," 
Mark tells us ; and Luke speaks of an 
innumerable multitude being gathered 
together on one occasion to hear Jesus. When He 
closed His wonderful discourse commonly called 
the Sermon on the Mount, Matthew tells us that 
" the people were astonished at His doctrine ; for 
He taught them as one having authority, and not 
as the scribes." 

But on no occasion was this eagerness of the 
people to hear Him more signally manifested than 
that mentioned by Matthew in his fourteenth chap- 
ter and by Mark and John. After giving an ac- 
count of the murder of John the Baptist by Herod, 
he says, "And his (John's) disciples came and took 
up the body and buried it, and went and told 
Jesus." The inimitable pathos of these few words 
is found in their extreme simplicity — " went and 
told Jesus." We are not told in express terms how 
Jesus was affected by the sad news — if to Him who 
knew all things anything could be news; but that 
He was deeply affected by what had happened to 
His heroic friend and forerunner, and that He ten- 
derly sympathized in the sorrows of these afflicted 
men, we may be very sure by what is stated in the 
next verse : " When Jesus heard of it He departed 
thence by ship into a desert place apart." He had 

(235) 



236 GATHERED SHEAVES. 

a desire to find a place in which to mourn. But 
this was denied Him, for " when the people had 
heard thereof they followed Him on foot out of the 
cities And He healed their sick." 

All day they crowded around Him listening to 
His teachings and intensely interested in the mira- 
cles of healing which they witnessed. " And when 
the day was now far spent (as Mark tells us), His 
disciples came unto Him and said, This is a desert 
place, and now the time is far passed ; send them 
away that they may go into the country round 
about, and into the villages, and buy themselves 
bread, for they have nothing to eat." Let us pause 
here for a moment to think of the meekness and 
kindness of the Master in permitting these dis- 
ciples, without taking the slightest offence, to sug- 
gest to Him what He ought to do. Viewing things 
from their stand-point, however, they were right. 
Kindness and common prudence dictated what they 
said ; but their words have more the ring of an 
order than a suggestion, and from them we are 
able to judge of the freedom of the social inter- 
course that existed between Jesus and His disciples. 

Matthew says, " Jesus said unto them, They need 
not depart ; give ye them to eat." Mark tells us, 
" They say unto Him, Shall we go and buy two 
hundred pennyworth of bread and give them to 
eat ? (About $30 in our money.) And He saith 
unto them, How many loaves have ye? Go and 
see. And when they knew, they say, Five, and two 
fishes." Here we have more of that free and easy 
social life that prevailed in that family of which 
our Lord was the head. Although immeasurably 



FEEDING THE MULTITUDE. 237 

above any who ever bore the form of humanity, He 
admits His chosen ones to the position, not of ser- 
vants, but of friends and companions, and lives with 
them on terms of the most familiar intercourse. 
May we entertain the hope that in heaven He will 
be equally companionable with those whom He has 
redeemed, and whose robes are washed white in 
His blood ? I think so ; for of that higher and bet- 
ter life we read, " The Lamb which is in the midst 
of the throne shall feed them, and shall lead them 
unto living fountains of waters." This seems 
to imply close, intimate, familiar companionship. 
Moreover, we read that He is the same yesterday, 
and to-day, and forever. 

The disciples informed their Master what provis- 
ion they had, with the remark (as John tells in re- 
lating the same incident), " What are these among 
so many ? " From a merely human point of view 
their remark was correct ; for really had the supply 
not been miraculously multiplied ten men could 
probably have eaten the whole of it. Without any 
regard to the supposed inadequacy of the supply, 
Jesus said, "Bring them hither to me." Then He 
commanded them to make the men sit down on the 
grass, for there was much grass in the place. This 
would occupy some time. All was done decently 
and in order. Then, looking up to heaven, " He 
blessed and break, and gave the loaves to His dis- 
ciples," says Matthew, " and the disciples to the 
multitude "; Mark adds, " and the two fishes divided 
He among them all." The most that He could 
give to any one disciple would be half a loaf, while 
some would carry to his work of distribution a still 



. 238 GATHERED SHEAVES. 

smaller supply. But instead of the supply which 
the Master had put into each man's hand diminish- 
ing as He broke it off for the people, he would 
soon see that it was growing larger and larger, en- 
abling him as he went along the ranks to break off 
more and more generously, until every one had 
abundance — more than he could eat; for we next 
read that when, at the command of the Master, 
they gathered up the fragments that were left they 
filled twelve baskets. Very likely the loaves and 
fishes which Jesus blessed, and for which He gave 
thanks, would not have half filled one basket. 

In this notable miracle — and there was another 
like it — all the human agency possible was pressed 
into the service. Jesus did not create this food out 
of nothing, but called for the little that existed at 
the time and place. The loaves were barley loaves, 
and the fragments which were gathered up, as well as 
all the bread that was eaten, were barley bread, and 
the same was true in the case of the fishes. Both 
were multiplied immensely ; but how, no man, not 
even the disciples who distributed them, could per- 
ceive. This multiplication was equivalent to crea- 
tion ; but there was a hiding of the divine power 
under the little basis which human agency had fur- 
nished. Many in those ranks would not know that 
there was any miracle about it. They ate and were 
filled, and there was an abundance left over. They 
knew that the disciples of Him whose footsteps 
they had been following gave it to them, and to 
them they would feel grateful. But afterward 
they discovered that they had been miraculously 
supplied, and exclaimed, as John tells us, " This is 



FEEDING THE MULTITUDE. 239 

of a truth that prophet that should come into the 
world ! " Then the prevailing sentiment among 
them became political rather than religious ; for 
they thought of taking Him by force and making 
Him a king. A king who could supply his people 
in that way would be all that selfish humanity could 
desire. 

Having fed the people, so that they should not 
faint on their way to their homes, He sent them 
away. Then He sent His disciples across the Sea 
of Galilee in their boat. He then, alone, " departed 
into a mountain to pray," as Mark tells us. He 
yearned for solitude, for His heart was sad about 
the death of His earliest and most intrepid friend, 
John the Baptist ; while His own still more awful 
fate rose like a thick cloud before Him. We are 
warranted in saying this ; for He exclaimed on 
another occasion : " I have a baptism to be baptized 
with, and how am I straitened till it be accom- 
plished ! " He needed to pray ; for strong as He- 
was, He sometimes shuddered at the prospect of 
what He had to endure when God should make His 
soul an offering for sin. The night was stormy ; 
and when He had gathered strength through com- 
muning with His Father, He went to seek His 
poor disciples who were tossing almost helplessly 
on the lake in the teeth of an adverse wind. He 
needed no boat, for He walked to them on the 
water. I shall not dwell upon that interesting in- 
cident ; for all Christian readers ought to be famil- 
iar with it. 




STILLING THE TEMPEST. 

JESUS had been engaged all day teaching 
the multitudes who gathered around Him 
on the western shore of the Sea of Galilee. 
The common people, we are told, heard Him gladly, 
even though few of them were able to understand 
clearly the import of the deep and beautiful para- 
bles which it pleased Him that day to pour forth. 

But, divine as He was, He was subject to all the 
weaknesses of our common humanity, and such a 
day of labor would cause weariness and exhaustion 
just as it would in any other man. When He fin- 
ished the work of the day and dismissed the people, 
He said to His disciples, " Let us pass over unto 
the other side," — the other side of the lake, to the 
country of the Gadarenes. He knew why He was 
going there, although it is not probable that His 
disciples were made acquainted with His object. 
His eye saw the poor raving maniac among the 
tombs, and His mercy prompted Him to go and de- 
liver him from the legion of demons who had him 
in possession. The distance over which the disciples 
had to row their fishing-boat from the one point to 
the other was probably seven or eight miles. Some 
other little boats went along, so eager were the peo- 
ple to be near Him. 

Here was an opportunity to get about two or 
three hours of rest after the fatiguing labor of the 
day, and Jesus availed Himself of it by retiring to 
(240) 



STILLING THE TEMPEST. 241 

the hinder part of the vessel, where He lay down 
with His head upon a pillow and slept. Satan and 
his evil spirits were hovering around as usual, and 
seeing the Lord asleep in that little frail craft far 
from land, conceived that it would be an admirable 
opportunity to drown Him, provided he could get 
up a tornado. Paul (Eph. ii. 2) calls Satan "the 
prince of the power of the air," from which we may 
infer that he is sometimes permitted to do such 
things. He tried it on that occasion, and was suc- 
cessful in getting up a terrible tempest, and (as Mark 
tells us) " the waves beat into the ship, so that it 
was now full." But Jesus slept on — 

" Amid the tempest dark and wild 
He slumbered like a weary child." 

The terrified and helpless mariners thought this 
very strange. They ran to Him, and in words which 
bear a tinge of reproach, they cried, " Master, carest 
Thou not that we perish ? " In calm, unexcited maj- 
esty He arose, glanced for a moment at the raging 
elements as a brave man would glance at an angry 
cur, and only said in a tone of infinite sovereignty, 
" Peace ! Be still ! " In a moment the wind ceased 
and there was a great calm — wind and water both 
became alike quiet. Then He turned to the affrighted 
and astonished men and said, " Why are ye so fear- 
ful? How is it that ye have no faith?" 

Reflections upon this wonderful incident might 
be carried out in many lines ; but I propose to re- 
gard it from a point of view which may be new to 
some minds. While it is, as it stands upon the sacred 
page, a short and well-told narrative of a historical 
16 



242 GATHERED SHEAVES. 

fact which happened more than eighteen centuries 
ago, we may find in it a grand allegorical prophecy 
of what will occur on a far wider scale probably not 
many years hence. Jesus Himself tells us of a com- 
ing storm, a time of trouble such as the world never 
saw; and in Rev. xii. 12, we read (I quote the re- 
vised version), " Woe for the earth and for the sea ; 
because the devil is gone down unto you, having 
great wrath, because he knoweth that he hath but 
a short time." He will come down just as he came 
down on the Galilean lake long ago while Jesus slept. 
Then will the world be tossed and torn as that lake 
was ; the faith of Christians will well-nigh expire, as 
did that of the disciples in that storm of which we 
have been speaking; and then will the same great 
Deliverer rebuke and still that tempest with as much 
ease as He did that uproar on that little sea. 

The unexampled rapidity with which things — 
both good and evil — are going on in the world ; 
the audacity of proud and lofty wicked men in 
assailing the very throne of the Almighty, seeking 
to drown Him in a sea of scientific theories and 
speculations, as the devil tried to drown Him in 
that lake ; and the fierce and dangerous combina- 
tions of men of baser type, such as the Nihilists of 
Russia, the Communists of Germany and France, 
the Land-leaguers of Ireland, and similar combina- 
tions in our own country, all give warning that we 
are approaching some great and terrible crisis. But 
when these things begin to come to pass, and when 
we see these things, and things still more alarming 
than anything that we yet see, and which human 
power is unable to control, shall we be terrified as 



STILLING THE TEMPEST. 243 

were the men on that little fishing-boat ? We ought 
not to be, for Jesus, in words as cheering as any He 
ever uttered, says : " When ye see these things be- 
gin to come to pass, then look up and lift up your 
heads, for your redemption draweth nigh." With 
all the ease with which He stilled the tempest of 
old He will say to the coming world-wide storm, 
" Peace ! Be still ! " and then there will be a great 
calm — a reign of righteousness ; " and the work of 
righteousness shall be peace ; and the effect of 
righteousness, quietness and assurance forever" 
(Isaiah xxxii. 17). 



MANY FOLDS— ONE FLOCK. 

}HE change of a single word, the correction 
of a mistake in the translation of one of 
the great sayings of Jesus, even though it 
amounts only to the substitution of a single mono- 
syllable for another of similar import, sometimes 
sheds a flood of light upon a passage which, al- 
though the change is hardly noticed at first, grows 
brighter and brighter the more closely we con- 
sider it. 

In the old or authorized version the 16th verse 
of John x. reads thus: "And other sheep I have 
which are not of this fold ; them also I must bring, 
and they shall hear my voice ; and there shall be 
one fold and one shepherd." 

The verse in the revised translation reads thus : 
" And other sheep I have which are not of this 
fold ; them also I must bring, and they shall hear 
my voice ; and they shall become one flock, one 
shepherd." 

In the Greek there are two words, both of which 
are rendered fold in the old translation. The first 
is correctly rendered fold ; but the second, which is 
also rendered fold, is a word of a different mean- 
ing, broader and more comprehensive. In the re- 
vised edition the second word is translated flock. 
In the margin it reads, "There shall be one flock, 
one Shepherd." Thus changing but a single word. 
(244) 



MANY FOLDS— ONE FLOCK. 245 

In the word correctly translated fold it is plain" 
that the Saviour was speaking of the Jews. Even 
Peter, in the house of Cornelius, was astonished to 
see those " other sheep " coming in ; for even he, 
up to that time, seems to have thought that salva- 
tion was confined to that people ; and when he 
returned to Jerusalem they of the circumcision ac- 
cused him and blamed him for going in to the 
Gentiles. But Peter's narrative of what had trans- 
pired in the house of Cornelius quickly cured his 
Jewish brethren of their restricted notions; for we 
are told that " when they heard these things they 
held their peace and glorified God." So Cornelius 
was brought into the flock. But he never entered 
the Jewish fold. 

When Paul wrote his Epistle to the Romans he 
addressed one fold : the two to the Corinthians 
were addressed to another fold, and so of all the 
rest. Each division constituted a distinct fold, but 
all were parts of the same flock and had the same 
Shepherd — divided, not in faith, but only in loca- 
tion. And the same is true of the seven distinct 
messages which John in Patmos was commanded 
to send from the one Shepherd to the seven 
churches of Asia. Each was a separate fold of the 
same flock. 

From the clear and strong distinction which the 
new and doubtless more correct rendering of this 
important verse makes between the words fold and 
flock, we see, as we never saw before, the beautiful 
unity in diversity which is found in the kingdom of 
heaven as it exists in this world. That kingdom 
here on earth is necessarily made up of elements 



246 GATHERED SHEAVES. 

more or less imperfect ; and being so, diversity is 
inevitable. While the members are one in Christ, 
their inherent imperfections cause them to differ 
one from another, as is found to be the case at the 
present day. For centuries, during the dark medi- 
aeval period, all the power of sacerdotal domination 
was put forth to shut up all Christ's sheep into one 
fold. In that fold, all freedom and nearly all life 
were thus smothered out. When the Great Ref- 
ormation came the barriers were broken down and 
Christ's people became free. But this freedom, in- 
stead of causing these liberated sheep to gather 
into a single fold — which they would have done had 
they been perfect — resulted in the organization of 
numerous sects, each of which became a separate 
fold. Still there was only one flock, one Shepherd, 
so far as the members of these several folds were 
Christ's sheep. 

" Thou hast a few names even in Sardis," said 
the Good Shepherd in His kind but severe message 
to that decaying fold ; and so doubtless He could 
say of every association on earth that bears His 
name, even of that huge and pent-up fold from 
which so many broke away in the days of the Ref- 
ormation. Let us, therefore, be glad that Christ's 
flock embraces all the faithful of all the folds, and 
that we can hail them as brethren, however widely 
they may differ from us in non-essentials. We are 
all struggling to rise from darkness to light ; all 
pleasing ourselves with the notion that we have got 
nearer to the truth than our brethren of other 
folds; and the less we contend about the things 
whereon we differ, and the nearer we get to the 



MANY FOLDS — ONE FLOCK. 247 

Shepherd, the more we shall feel and know that 
there is after all but one flock. While we are far 
from Him those minor differences which separate 
us one from another assume vast importance in our 
esteem ; but when His countenance shines upon us, 
and His Spirit animates us, they shrink almost to 
nothing. 

From the great diversity of human character, and 
from the darkness and imperfection in which we 
are yet involved, it is better that there should be 
numerous folds. Men can not avoid having divers 
systems of doctrine and prescribed forms so long as 
they are what they are ; but as light shines more 
and more upon them, the less important do these 
systems and forms become, and the more do the 
diversities of the folds disappear in the glories of 
the one flock and the one Shepherd. 

The folds — the Presbyterian, the Methodist, the 
Episcopalian, the Baptist, the Lutheran, the Con- 
gregational, the Friends, and even the Catholic — 
may and ought to be pleasant homes and resting- 
places where brethren may dwell together in unity. 
But it is bad to make them prison-houses where the 
dwellers in them are deprived of that liberty where- 
with Christ makes His people free. This was the 
great blunder and crime of the Church of Rome. 
Therefore, while dwelling in their respective folds, 
let the sheep ever keep in mind that they belong 
to one great flock, of which each chosen fold is but 
a part, and that they all have one great and glorious 
Shepherd who will take them in His own good time 
out of their several folds and lead them as one flock 
to the place which He has prepared for them, whence 



248 GATHERED SHEAVES. 

they shall never more go out — where " the Lamb 
which is in the midst of the throne shall feed them, 
and shall lead them unto living fountains of waters ; 
and God shall wipe away all tears from their eyes." 
Or, as it reads in the revised version, including the 
preceding verse : " They shall hunger no more, 
neither thirst any more ; neither shall the sun 
strike upon them, nor any heat ; for the Lamb 
which is in the midst of the throne shall be their 
Shepherd, and shall guide them unto fountains of 
waters of life ; and God shall wipe away every tear 
from their eyes" (Rev. vii. 16, 17). 



"CONTINUE YE IN MY LOVE." 

"And he showed me a pure river of the water of life, clear as crystal, 
proceeding out of the throne of God and of the Lamb." — Rev. xxii. i. 



E are apt to fix the mind altogether on 
heaven when we read these words. But, 
while the metaphor is applicable to that 
better country, we err when we restrict that river 
of life to the abode of the blessed. Like Him from 
whose throne it proceeds, it is infinite — it has no 
limitations, no end. When the Son of God came 
down to give life to the world, that river reached 
the earth in a volume that passeth knowledge. 
God's gift of His Son is His unspeakable gift, so 
great that it is impossible that it could be greater ; 
and this He gave because He " so loved the world." 
This love is what the angel showed John when he 
caused him to see that river. 

The water of life, clear as crystal, is God's love. 
Angels are made glad by it. Christ is glorified by 
it ; for upon Him it centres, and through Him it 
flows to all who are united to Him by faith. 
Through Christ they become a peculiar people — ■ 
different from the loftier beings of heaven, and dif- 
ferent from the lower creatures of earth. Out of 
Christ men are lost and undone — lower than the 
brutes, for brutes are incapable of sin, and can not 
fall below the condition in which their Maker placed 
them. In Christ they are higher than the angels ; 

(249) 



2 SO GATHERED SHEAVES. 

for, being in Christ, they are made partakers of the 
divine nature, and through that union become the 
sons of God (2 Peter i. 4 ; John i. 12). It is won- 
derful. John, in his first epistle, says — and he can 
say no more, he can go no higher — " Now are we 
the sons of God, and it doth not yet appear what 
we shall be "; then he adds, " but we know that, 
when He shall appear, we shall be like Him." 

That river of life and love bore Christ to us in 
all the fulness of the Godhead bodily. Indeed, to 
us He Himself is that river. Through no other 
channel could God's love flow to us. "As the 
Father hath loved me, so have I loved you," says 
Christ ; and then He says, " Continue ye in my 
love." Ponder every word, every clause of this 
wonderful utterance. How does Christ love us? 
" As the Father hath loved me." The love of the 
Father for Him is infinite and unchangeable, una- 
bating and endless. Nothing can separate the be- 
liever from it. The believer may and does change ; 
Christ changes not. The believer may grow cold, 
and wander off like a lost sheep ; but that coldness, 
that wandering, can not separate him from the love 
and care of his Shepherd. He will surely follow 
him and bring him back, restore him and cause him 
to walk in the paths of righteousness. Hence, he 
is able to sing : 

" My soul He doth restore again, 
And me to walk doth make 
Within the paths of righteousness, 
Even for His own name's sake." 

When He says, " Continue ye in my love," He 
does not mean that we must keep our hearts always 



"CONTINUE YE IN MY LOVE. 25 1 

in a glow of love to Him, but He is exhorting us 
to assure ourselves that however our love may have 
chilled, however hard our hearts may have become, 
however far we may have wandered from the path 
which He has marked out for us, His love to us has 
not abated in the least. This truth Peter found out 
on the night on which he denied Him ; for that 
look which Jesus gave him brought him back and 
caused him to weep bitterly, because he saw that 
his Master still loved him as ardently as ever. 
The wretched Judas got no such look as that. The 
one continued in Christ's love ; the other never 
knew it. 

The river of the water of life which flows from 
the throne of God and of the Lamb can only reach 
us through our union with the great Mediator, 
through faith in Him. On His love to us, not ours 
to Him, must we rest our hope ; His truth, and not 
our own fidelity, must be the bond of our union, 
the ground of our confidence. But first let us be 
well assured that we are not of the number of those 
to whom He will say, in the day of judgment : " I 
never knew you." Of this we can be well assured, 
partly by the memory of past experience, and partly 
by numerous good tests laid down in the Scrip- 
tures. Take this one for example : "We know that 
we have passed from death unto life because we 
love the brethren." This grace is retained in the 
heart of every true believer, notwithstanding God 
may have hid His face from him for the moment. 

In this we see the course of the river of life, as 
it flows from the throne of God to His incarnate 
Son, and through Him to all whom the Father hath 



252 GATHERED SHEAVES. 

given Him. From them it flows back to its source, 
and onward to their brethren in Christ, and to all 
their natural brethren in the great family of Adam. 
This blessed stream which issues from the throne 
of God and the Lamb carries the missionary of the 
Cross to the dark places of the earth, and to the 
equally dark and still more wicked places found in 
Christian lands. 

Of the flow of this river to other realms of crea- 
tion (for God's tender mercies are over all His 
works), it is not for us to understand ; but the part 
which does belong to us as ransomed sinners is 
glorious beyond all expression : " Behold," exclaims 
the beloved disciple in his first epistle, "what man- 
ner of love the Father hath bestowed upon us, that " 
we should be called the sons of God ! " Of the 
nature and measure of that love Jesus tells us in 
terms as simple as it is possible for Him to use, yet 
is their import as far beyond our grasp as are the 
eternal years of God, or the infinite space into which 
we look when we gaze at the stars. He says: "As 
the Father hath loved me, so have I loved you "; 
and it is in this love of Him to us, not ours to Him, 
that Fie exhorts us to continue. 



THE LOVE OF CHRIST. 



AUL, in his Epistle to the Ephesians, speaks 
of the love of Christ as a thing which pass- 
eth knowledge ; and yet he prays that they 
may know it. It is well, therefore, to turn our 
thoughts to this infinite theme, and begin, even 
here in this lower life, the study of that which will 
never, never be fully comprehended. 

It is Christ's love to us, not ours to Him, of which 
we are speaking. Many Christians worry themselves 
over the question whether they love Christ, and ask 
with painful doubt and uncertainty : 

" Do I love the Lord, or no ? 
Am I His, or am I not ? " 

Such anxiety as this is all wrong. The beloved dis- 
ciple had no trouble of that kind when he wrote : 
" We love Him because He first loved us." Again 
he says : " We have known and believed the love 
that God hath to us." It was this knowledge that 
kept the heart of John so aglow with love for his 
Lord that it scintillates beautifully in almost every 
sentence that he wrote. He had heard his Lord and 
Master, in that last sorrowful night that he spent 
with Him and His companions, solemnly enjoin 
upon them to "continue in His love"; and well did 
he obey the injunction. Therefore we only find in 
his subsequent life and writings the reflection of 

(253) 



254 GATHERED SHEAVES. 

the infinite love of God as it shone in the face of 
Jesus Christ. It shined in that highly favored and 
beloved man as the light of the sun in a dew-drop 
which hangs upon a blade of grass, or in the disk 
of a planet, which, but for it, would be dark, cold, 
dead, and undiscoverable. 

Jesus did not say, " Continue to love me." As 
well might the sun say to the dark planets around 
him, " Send your rays of light to me, and then I 
will shine on you." They have none to send ; 
neither have we poor sinners any to send to our 
Sun of Righteousness. But when He shines upon 
us we can reflect back some of His light — only a 
little, to be sure — but that little is beautiful. He is 
pleased with it, and all who see it admire it as they 
admire the bright reflection of the natural sun, 
whether seen in the brilliant face of a planet, or in 
a drop of dew. 

"Continue ye in my love," says Jesus. Let no 
clouds of unbelief, or distrust, or passion, or world- 
liness, or sinful desires or practices thrust them- 
selves in between Christ and you, to intercept those 
life-giving rays which flow from Him, as light and 
warmth and life flow from the great centre of this 
system in which our Creator has placed us. As well 
might we expect a flower to bloom or a fruit to 
mature, if planted in a dark cavern, as look for 
Christian graces to flourish in the absence of a real- 
izing sense of the love of Christ to us individually. 
The fact that the sun is shining over the whole 
face of the earth has no influence upon that sup- 
posed flower or fruit in the cavern. It must, for it- 
self, be set in sunshine. So must every individual 



THE LOVE OF CHRIST. 255 

mortal be brought into that true light if he would 
grow up into everlasting life. "Abide in me," " Con- 
tinue ye in my love," says Christ ; " for without me 
ye can do nothing." 

The Bible speaks of " sparks of our own kindling." 
This is a striking figure to set forth the painful, anxi- 
ous, but unavailing efforts of many to work them- 
selves up into a love for Christ. That is what we 
can not do. Nothing short of a persuasion — not 
merely a persuasion of the understanding, but a per- 
suasion that is felt deep down in the heart and lays 
hold of the affections — that Christ loves us can en- 
able us to return, to reflect back, that love. We 
love Him because we know that He loves us, and 
gave Himself for us. 

Jesus says, " No man can come to me except the 
Father which hath sent me draw him." The word 
draw, as it is here used, is an attracting force, not 
one which can not be resisted ; for it is often suc- 
cessfully resisted ; and we should cease to be free 
agents if it could not be. Jesus complains, " Ye will 
not come unto me that ye might have life." Thus 
we see that there are two wills, the divine and the 
human. The Eternal God asks in earnest expostu- 
lation, "Why will ye die?" Jesus cries, "Come 
unto me." Everything, indeed, that infinite love 
can do to save sinners has been done ; but the nat- 
ural will of man resists. In some that resistance is 
overcome, in others it is not. The love of the world, 
its pleasures, its profits, its ten thousand allurements, 
are too strong to be overcome. All that is said in the 
Holy Scriptures of God's desire to save sinners, all 
that is said of the love of Jesus, may be admitted 



256 GATHERED SHEAVES. 

as abstract truth, but yet it is not really believed. 
Thousands are saying in a half-hearted way, " Oh ! 
I should like to be a Christian ! " or " I wish I was 
good enough ; but I am not," or " I hope to be one 
before I die." Some go so far as to say, " I am try- 
ing to do right, and I hope that I shall be saved." 
In all such thoughts or talk as this the love of 
Christ, and His power to save to the uttermost, are 
utterly excluded. These are some of the sparks of 
which the prophet speaks, and declares that all who 
build their hopes upon them shall lie down in sorrow. 
Jesus says, " Continue ye in my love." If we do 
that He will take care of our love, and we shall not 
be asking, " Do I love the Lord or no ? " While 
standing in the cheering, life-giving beams of the 
Sun of Righteousness, no matter how weak and 
vacillating we may feel ourselves to be, we can sing 
in the exulting words of Horatius Bonar : 

" I change — He changes not ; 
The Christ can never die ; 
His love, not mine, the resting place ; 
His truth, not mine, the tie." 

— Pres. Hymnal, 268. 

Or adopt as our own the still sublimer words of 
Paul : " I know whom I have believed, and am per- 
suaded that He is able to keep that which I have 
committed unto Him against that day " (2 Tim. i. 

12). 




JESUS GIVING JOY AND PEACE. 

OH EN Jesus had come to the last night of 
His mortal life, and the awful shadows of 
Gethsemane and Calvary were already upon 
Him, He talked for a good while calmly, lovingly, 
and cheerfully to His little band of chosen witness- 
es, who were deeply depressed because they knew 
that something terrible was impending. Just as they 
were entering the passover room He said, " With 
desire I have desired to eat this passover with you 
before I suffer." These portentous words filled them 
with the deepest sorrow and foreboding. To their 
minds the words were dark, mysterious, and dread- 
ful, and their sorrow deeply excited the sympathy 
of their Master. After telling Peter that on that 
night he would thrice deny Him, He at once be- 
gan the most cheering, the most loving, the most 
triumphant discourse that ever fell on human ears, 
lifting them away up above the gloom of that dark 
hour. It was not a set address, but a conversation 
which shows us, as nothing else can show, the lov- 
ing and familiar relation which existed between 
Jesus and His disciples. 

How grandly He begins ! " Let not your heart 
be troubled ; ye believe in God, believe also in me." 
He then lifts them up to that glorious place which 
He was about to prepare for them, promising to 
receive them unto Himself, that where He is they 
should be also. He had just told them once more 
17 ( 2 57) 



258 GATHERED SHEAVES. 

that He was about to suffer ; but this last promise 
assured them that although He was about to suffer 
and to die, yet they should not lose Him. And so 
He went on pouring forth promise after promise, 
exacting nothing on their part but faith in Him, 
and love to Him and to one another. Not a word 
is said about their sins ; not the semblance of a re- 
buke ; not the slightest allusion to the fearful con- 
flict into which He should enter before the sun 
should again rise upon the earth. Nothing is said 
from first to last but what is consolatory, triumph- 
ant, assuring, and joyful. Now let us quote His con- 
cluding words : " These things have I spoken unto 
you, that in me ye might have peace. In the world 
ye have tribulation ; but be of good cheer ; I have 
overcome the world." 

In this last quotation I have followed the revised 
version. The old or received version reads, " In 
the world ye shall have tribulation." I prefer the 
revised reading, because it connects the last sen- 
tence so strikingly with the words, " in me ye 
might have peace." There is no other source of 
peace but Jesus. Those who seek for peace in the 
world, no matter what their outward circumstances 
may be, have tribulation. They may have what 
people call enjoyment, but not peace. 

It was right that the hearts of these disciples 
should be sorrowful " on that dark, that doleful 
night." This Jesus did not forbid; but He did 4 
tell them not to let their hearts be troubled. There 
is a difference between sorrow and trouble. Sor- 
row may be and often is one of the holiest of emo- 
tions. Jesus Himself was a man of sorrow. Tribu- 



JESUS GIVING JOY AND PEACE. 259 

lation and trouble are terms that express almost 
the same thing. The idea is trembling, shaking, 
doubt, foreboding, uncertainty, and has in it more 
or less of the element of unbelief. Sorrow, on the 
other hand, may coexist with the clearest and 
strongest faith, and also sometimes with a high 
degree of peace and joy. To avoid trouble under 
the pressure of grief Jesus simply said, " Ye believe 
in God ; believe also in me." There was no diffi- 
culty in the minds of these men as to the existence, 
power, and faithfulness of the God of Abraham, 
Isaac, and Jacob, and of the holy prophets ; but to 
believe in, to trust in, and to rely upon One who 
seemed to be as weak as themselves, One who was 
about to suffer, One who at that hour seemed to 
be unable to save Himself, was a severe trial of 
their faith. Hence the grand utterance regarding 
those many mansions in His Father's house, and 
the still grander promise that He would go and 
prepare a place for them, and then come again and 
receive them to Himself, so that where He was 
they should be also. Although they were unable 
to see through the dark and impenetrable cloud 
that then hung over them and caused their hearts 
to tremble with dread and apprehension, He 
lifted them up above it, and revealed to them the 
glory which should be His and theirs together for- 
ever. 

But His gracious words did not terminate upon 
that little band who at that moment were gathered 
around Him. They are just as much for you, dear 
reader, and for me, as they were for them. They 
were in tribulation at that time ; so are we very 



260 GATHERED SHEAVES. 

often. Their hearts were troubled because they 
saw that some awful calamity was impending 
Their experience was that of their brethren of all 
ages. It was a dark and terrible cloud that had 
gathered over them which they could not under- 
stand. Such clouds — not so terrible it may be, 
but yet dark and mysterious — often gather over us. 
Jesus often says to us in His dealings with us, 
" What I do thou knowest not now, but thou shalt 
know hereafter." 

" Sorrow hath filled your hearts," said Jesus on 
that same occasion ; but He did not blame them 
for that nor forbid it ; but He did say, " Let not 
your heart be troubled." Faith, and love, and joy, 
and peace may all exist in the heart of a Christian 
together with deep sorrow ; but they can not exist 
in a troubled heart, in a heart filled with doubt, 
mistrust, apprehension, despondency, hopelessness, 
all of which are the progeny of unbelief. Paul 
speaks of being " sorrowful, yet always rejoicing," 
the very condition into which our Lord labored to 
bring His disciples on that night on which He was 
betrayed. He speaks also of being joyful in tribu- 
lation, that is, in the midst of surrounding storms 
of persecution or other outward trial. Solomon 
tells us that "sorrow is better than laughter"; and 
that the house of mourning is better than that of 
feasting. 

Sorrow does not destroy peace, but is rather con- 
ducive to it, because it makes the heart more ten- 
der and brings us nearer to God. That is a very 
good petition with which one of our most beautiful 
hymns begins : 



JESUS GIVING JOY AND PEACE. 261 

" Nearer, my God, to Thee, 
Nearer to Thee ; 
E'en though it be a cross 
That raiseth me ! " 

The nearer we are to God, the more peace we have. 
Our joy may not be exuberant ; our hearts may be 
in heaviness because of manifold temptations, i. e., 
trials ; but peace is still better than joy. It was 
not joy, but peace, which Jesus gave to His sor- 
rowing friends and brethren before He left them, 
in these beautiful and sublime words which are 
enough to calm a troubled world : " Peace I leave 
with you, my peace I give unto you ; not as the 
world giveth, give I unto you. Let not your heart 
be troubled, neither let it be afraid." 




< LET NOT YOUR HEART BE TROUBLED." 

ITH these kind and beautiful words the 
Saviour opened His farewell address to His 
sorrowing disciples just before He suffered, 
and soon after He had given to them the bread 
and the wine which He appointed to be the me- 
morial of His death through all time until He came 
again. 

Had He stopped there, in the situation in which 
those perplexed disciples were at that moment, He 
would have uttered idle words. But He did not 
stop there ; for He immediately added, " Ye be- 
lieve in God, believe also in me." He Himself had 
just told them, " One of you shall betray me," and 
" all ye shall be offended because of me this night." 
If, therefore, men ever had reason to be troubled, 
they had at that moment. They were very anxi- 
ous ; yet His cheering words rise above this sea of 
trouble, and He says, " Let not your heart be 
troubled," and then pointed them to Almighty God 
as their Father, and to Himself as their Friend, 
their Redeemer, their Lord, their Shepherd, and 
their Brother, as objects in whom they could be- 
lieve and securely trust. He spake not of His im- 
pending death, but only of His departure from 
them, that He might go and prepare mansions of 
everlasting rest for them, so that He could return 
again and take them home to Himself, where they 
(262) 



"LET NOT YOUR HEART BE TROUBLED." 263 

should dwell forever with Him, see His face, sing 
His praise, and behold His glory. 

Surely those disciples had enough to trouble 
them. Their Master had told them that He was 
about to leave them — that one of them, they knew 
not which, should betray Him — that all of them 
should be offended because of Him that very night ; 
and, worse than all else, that He Himself should 
be betrayed into the hands of wicked men to be 
crucified and slain ; and still, under this tremen- 
dous storm of outward trouble and self-distrust, 
which extorted the terrible question, " Lord, is it 
I?" He calmly and triumphantly exclaims, " Let 
not your heart be troubled." 

It was well for the whole world of penitent sin- 
ners that those disciples were subjected to that 
fearful storm of every disquieting element that can 
be imagined — outward temptation, certain impend- 
ing calamity, sore bereavement, coupled with the 
last degree of self-distrust. Yet in that dark hour 
Jesus kindly turns to them and says, " Let not your 
heart be troubled ; ye believe in God, believe also 
in me." Then, after talking to them of the heaven- 
ly mansions, of Himself as the Way, the Truth, 
and the Life, and of the Comforter whom He would 
send, He uttered this grand benediction, " Peace I 
leave with you, my peace I give unto you ; not as 
the world giveth give I unto you. Let not your 
heart be troubled, neither let it be afraid." 

If they might be free from trouble in that dark 
hour; if they might trust so that the peace of 
which Jesus spoke might flow into their hearts and 
give them rest and even joy, surely no penitent 



204 GATHERED SHE/WES. 

sinner need for a moment lie under a load of doubt 
and anxiety. Only believe in God your Saviour as 
Jesus bids you, and all is well. He will give* the 
peace of which He speaks. No matter how weak 
and unreliable you may feel yourself to be ; no 
matter how vile, sinful, and undeserving ; no mat- 
ter how little you may know of the deeper mys- 
teries of grace, you are quite ready to go to Him 
for life and light and peace and salvation. 

Some people have a vague notion that in order 
to be converted they must have a season of anxiety 
and trouble, of doubt and disquietude, and then 
they may dare to hope that, after such a prelude, 
they will pass into the light and joy of saving faith. 
This is all wrong. Many, it is true, struggle into 
life in that way ; but it is not the better way ; and 
no one would experience these preliminary troubles 
at all if they could only let go their self-trust, and 
rely solely on Christ. This all are obliged to do at 
last ; but it would be much more to the glory of 
the Saviour if it were done at once. I was very 
much pleased some years ago to 'learn that an old 
friend of mine, a man of fine culture and natural 
ability, but who had lived well-nigh sixty years in 
careless disregard of the claims of God upon him, 
almost in an instant became a firm and happy be- 
liever while walking the street alone. The Holy 
Spirit touched his heart, and he responded at once, 
just as all ought to do. He lived a few years a 
devout and happy Christian and then died in tri- 
umph. 

Hut let no careless people take comfort from 
Christ's words. They are not the ones to whom 



"LET NOT YOUR HEART BE TROUBLED." 265 

He is saying, " Let not your heart be troubled "; 
for it was but a little later on the same night on 
which He uttered these words, that He said to 
them, when He saw them sleeping at a time when 
they ought not to have slept : " Watch and pray, 
that ye enter not into temptation." It is to those 
who are watching and praying ; those who are ask- 
ing the way of salvation ; those who are environed 
with trouble of any kind — struggling with adversity 
it may be, or doubt, or darkness, or temptation, 
that His cheering voice comes, saying. " Let not 
your heart be troubled ; ye believe in God, believe 
also in me." And at the close of His consolatory 
address, He says to the same class : " In the world 
ye shall have tribulation ; but be of good cheer, I 
have overcome the world." 




A LITTLE WHILE. 

j|N His last conversation with His disciples, 
just before His betrayal and sufferings, 
Jesus used this phrase with thrilling effect 
while speaking of the awful events which lay just 
before Himself and them (see John xvi. 16, to 
the end). 

But His words on that occasion reached farther 
than to the men who were present in that upper 
room, and beyond the terrible events just impend- 
ing. They come home with cheering power to the 
heart of every believer who is walking by faith and 
not by sight through this dark and trying world — 
this mortal life, which, although it may reach to 
fourscore years, is only a little while. 

Still it 'is not of that simple and expressive phrase 
as it occurs in John xvi., that I propose to speak at 
this time, but of the same phrase as found in the 
second chapter of the Epistle to the Hebrews, where 
the apostle quotes the Eighth Psalm, wherein David 
breaks out in an exclamation of wonder, saying : 
" What is man that Thou art mindful of him ? or 
the son of man that Thou visitest him ? Thou 
madest him a little lower than the angels ; Thou 
crownedst him with glory and honor and didst set 
him over the works of Thy hands ; Thou didst put 
all things in subjection under his, feet." Here the 
psalmist is speaking of man in the generic sense- 
(266) 



A LITTLE WHILE. 267 

This quotation is made from the revised version of 
the New Testament, which is exactly the same as 
the old ; but in the margin the phrase, " a little 
lower than the angels," is made to read " for a little 
while lower than the angels." This is a great 
and startling difference, and warrants the inference 
that man's rank is only in this mortal life lower 
than that of angels ; that it is not his permanent 
place. Let us follow the apostle's argument a little 
farther. I first quote from the authorized version : 

44 For in that He put all in subjection under Him, He left 
nothing that is not put under Him. But now we see not 
yet all things put under Him. But we see Jesus, who was 
made a little lower than the angels, for the suffering of 
death, crowned with glory and honor ; that He by the grace 
of God should taste death for every man." 

Here is the same passage from the revised ver- 
sion : 

44 For in that He subjected all things unto Him, He left . 
nothing that is not subject to Him. But now we see not 
yet all things subjected to Him. But we behold Him who 
hath been made a little lower than the angels [marginal 
reading — 4 made for a little while lower than the angels,'] 
even Jesus, because of the suffering of death crowned with 
glory and honor, that by the grace of God He should taste 
death for every man." 

The same words which the psalmist applies to 
man in the generic sense are used by the apostle 
of Jesus Himself, who, in the conditions to which 
He was. pleased to subject Himself during His 
mortal life, was ".for a little while" made lower 
than the angels. In His case the marginal reading 



268 GATHERED SHEAVES. 

must be the true reading; for we know from His 
own words that His rank before He became in- 
carnate, as well as since He rose from the tomb, is 
immeasurably above that of angels. No argument 
is needed on that point. 

Well, then, does it follow that His redeemed 
people are only " for a little while " lower than the 
angels? Does Jesus raise them to His own rank? 
He says : " To him that overcometh will I grant 
to sit with me in my throne." To what angel did 
He at any time say such words as these ? " Be- 
loved," says John in his first epistle, " now are we 
the sons of God, and it doth not yet appear what 
we shall be." Or, as it reads in the revised version, 
" Beloved, now are we children of God, and it is 
not yet made manifest what we shall be." This, 
too, favors the idea that the lower condition of 
which both the psalmist and the apostle speak is 
only " for a little while." 

But let us return to the grand argument of the 
Epistle to the Hebrews: " For it became Him, for 
whom are all things, and by whom are all things, 
in bringing many sons into glory, to make the 
author (or captain) of their salvation perfect through 
sufferings. For both He that sanctifieth and they 
who are sanctified are all of one ; for which cause 
He is not ashamed to call them brethren, saying, I 
will declare thy name unto my brethren ; in the 
midst of the church will I sing praise unto thee." 
" He is not ashamed to call them brethren ! " 
How wondrous the grace that fits such beings as we 
are for such a relation ! Of angels it is written 
that they excel in strength ; that they are pure and 



A -LITTLE WHILE. 269 

holy. One of them said, " I am Gabriel that stand 
in the presence of God." They are, therefore,^ 
great and glorious beyond anything that we can yet 
conceive; but yet they rank no higher than ser- 
vants, ministering spirits ; while those whom Christ 
purchased with His blood, and lifted out of a hor- 
rible pit and out of miry clay, are called the children 
of God, the joint heirs with Christ, and are even 
made, as Peter says, partakers of the divine nature. 
They are made " for a little while," and only for a 
little while, lower than the angels. He who is 
mighty to save and equally mighty to exalt, finds 
them in their lost condition, crushed down under a 
load of sin and misery, and becomes to them what 
He says He is, " the Resurrection and the Life "; 
lifts them up step after step, until He seats them 
upon His own throne where He sways with a 
human hand the sceptre of the universe. Is this 
the destiny of Him who writes these words, and of 
those who may read them ? Dear brethren, we 
little know how great is that salvation of which we 
are the subjects, and which was purchased at a 
price which we shall never either here or in heaven 
be able fully to estimate. And its results are equal 
to its cost ; for both are far, far beyond anything 
we are able to conceive in this life ; and even in the 
life to come its greatness will only be manifested 
by the unrolling of the unending scroll of eternity. 
All that even John could say was : " Beloved, now 
are we the sons of God, and it doth not yet appear 
what we shall be." Yes, and even in heaven itself 
we shall never fully know. We can no more reach 
the measure of Christ or the fulness of God than 



270 GATHERED SHEAVES. 

we can reach the end of everlasting life. What 
manner of persons ought we to be, therefore, while 
passing through this perilous " little while," up- 
on the right improvement of which so much de- 
pends? 




"IN HIS WILL IS OUR PEACE." 

|ANTE has a grand line, which, translated 
into English, gives us this profound aphor- 
ism, " In His will is our peace." Jesus 
taught us to pray, " Thy will be done "; and at the 
close of His valedictory address to His disciples, 
He says, " These things have I spoken to you that 
in me ye might have peace." That they might 
know God's will He had spoken to them not only 
on that occasion, but they had been under His in- 
struction through a series of years. In the begin- 
ning of that address He says, " Let not your heart 
be troubled ; ye believe in God, believe also in 
me." And again He says, " If a man love me he 
will keep my words ; and my Father will love him, 
and we will come unto him and make our abode 
with him." That man's condition is one of perfect 
peace, no matter what disturbances there may be 
around him. But how does he get this supremest 
blessing that a creature can enjoy ? By keeping 
Christ's words ; yielding a sincere and hearty obe- 
dience to His will. The highest act of obedience 
to God's will that it is in our power to render is to 
" believe on Him whom He hath sent." This, 
Jesus Himself declares, is the work which the 
Father gives us to do. This is faith, the founda- 
tion grace in Christian character. This is the bond 
of union between the vine and the branches of 

(271) 



272 GATHERED SHEAVES. 

which Jesus speaks — the channel through which all 
blessings flow. Until this union is formed it is but 
mockery for us to say, " Thy will be done." 

Faith gives a cheerful submission to the divine 
will, because it enables us to reach a calm and quiet 
persuasion that God's will, whatever it may be, 
however dark and mysterious, however afflictive, is 
always good for us — better than anything that we 
could have devised. When Martha and Mary sent 
word to Jesus that he whom He loved was sick, 
they were doubtless terribly tried at what would 
seem to them to be cold neglect, because He made 
no response until the friend whom they knew He 
loved had died and was buried. But the sequel 
showed them that He knew what was best for 
them and for believers of all ages. In that in- 
cident we can see how good it is to " trust in 
the Lord and wait patiently for Him." Those 
two sisters, when they saw their brother sinking to 
death, would have been very glad to have had their 
wills done ; but when they saw him arise from the 
tomb in health and strength at the call of Him who 
loved him, they would be fully persuaded that 
Christ's will was better than theirs. And what was 
true in the case of that family in Bethany is true of 
every Christian in the world. 

The petition, " Thy will be done," comprehends 
our active obedience to all things whatsoever the 
Master commands. Our obedience brings us nearer 
to Him, and thus we live in the light of His coun- 
tenance and have a sweet and abiding assurance of 
His love. Thus in Him we have peace, because 
there is harmony between His will and ours. 



"IN HIS WILL IS OUR PEACE." 273 

When drawing near to the grave, whether from 
advanced age or mortal disease, then is the time 
" to lie passive in His hands, and know no will but 
His." Whether it is better to depart and be with 
Christ or to abide here a little while longer is a 
problem which the saint is unable to solve. Some- 
times there is a strong and eager desire to depart ; 
but this, when it is merely the working of the hu- 
man will, is wrong and partakes of the element of 
selfishness. On the other hand, when the Christian 
perceives that it is God's will to call him hence, 
and when that knowledge fills him with joy, it is 
right, eminently right ; and it is so because his will 
and God's will are in harmony. 

When a dear friend is trembling between life and 
death, we earnestly desire and pray that his life 
may be spared ; and' to do so is not wrong. Still, 
if we are Christians, the petition, " Thy will be 
done," will mingle with our prayers for the life of 
the loved one. But let us examine carefully what 
lies behind that expressed submission. Does it 
arise from a forced and reluctant yielding to a 
Power which we know we can not resist ? Is it 
like the submission of the minority to the majority 
in political conflicts ? Or is it a blessed assurance 
that the denial of our petition is better both for us 
and for the subject of our prayers than the grant- 
ing of them would be ? If so, then we have peace, 
because our will and God's will are in harmony, and 
thus in Him we have peace. 

Jesus, in prospect of His impending sufferings, 
once prayed, " Father, save me from this hour ! " 
but it was no sooner uttered than it was taken 



274 GATHERED SHEAVES. 

back ; for He remembered that it could not be 
granted. Then He exclaimed, " Father, glorify 
Thy name ! " Instantly His troubled soul was at 
peace, and His next utterances were those of joy 
and triumph (see Jno. xii. 27-32). And in the 
agony of Gethsemane His language was, " my 
Father, if this cup may not pass away from me, 
except I drink it, Thy will be done." " He was 
oppressed and He was afflicted " as no one ever 
was before or since, yet see how He acted ; and 
thus He became the great exemplar of all the sons 
and daughters of affliction. His momentary hor- 
ror, of which John speaks, was quickly succeeded 
by joy and peace ; while the more protracted par- 
oxysm in Gethsemane was followed by a calmness 
and courage the most sublime of anything on rec- 
ord. I mean His surrender to the armed band 
whom Judas led to the place where he supposed 
He would be found. His full submission to the 
will of His Father gave that calm courage which 
bore Him through the unimaginable horrors of His 
sacrifice, when His soul was made an offering for 
sin. 

Peter in his second epistle (iii. 9) tells us that the 
Lord is " not willing that any should perish, but. 
that all should come to repentance." But Jesus 
tells us that " with God all things are possible "; 
why, then, if He is not willing that any should 
perish, and all things are possible with Him, do any 
perish ? Jesus answers this awful question in sev- 
eral places in His teachings, especially in His 
talk with Nicodemus, and in these emphatic words 
to the Jews in the temple — " Ye will not come unto 



"IN HIS WILL IS OUR PEACE. 275 

me that ye might have life." It is God's will or 
desire that all should come to repentance, that all 
should believe on Him whom He sent ; but in that 
most important of all things He does not bring His 
will into conflict with that of the sinner. If the 
sinner comes at all it must be his own act — he must 
be a volunteer, not a conscript. God invites, per- 
suades, draws, reasons, warns, and even threatens ; 
but He does not use force, nor put forth such 
power as He does in His providential government. 
This is the law of the kingdom of grace ; and thus 
a tremendous condemnation falls upon the head of 
every one who " obeys not the Gospel of our Lord 
Jesus Christ." This is worse than rebellion ; it is 
contempt. 




THE SECRET OF THE LORD. 

JMONG the rich and varied blessings ap- 
pended to His messages to the seven 
churches — one to each — promised by Christ 
" to him that overcometh," that in the message to 
the church in Pergamos is so peculiar, so figurative 
and mystical, and at the same time so rich and 
precious when properly understood, that it may be 
profitable to both the writer and the reader to dis- 
cuss it in a few words. It is in these words : 

" To him that overcometh will I give to eat of 
the hidden manna ; and will give him a white stone, 
and in the stone a new name written which no man 
knoweth saving he that receiveth it." 

Both the blessings promised here relate to the 
innermost and profoundest personal experience of 
the believer. This hidden manna and this white 
stone are not figures of blessings reserved for the 
spirits of the just made perfect in a higher and 
better life than this, but a part and most important 
part of the provision which " the Lord of the way," 
as Bunyan expresses it, has made for His pilgrims 
through this life to that which is higher and better. 
The manna they may gather every day and every 
hour. It may be found in equal abundance in the 
gloomy valley and on the sunlit mount. In pros- 
perity and adversity, in the bloom of youth, in the 
vigor of manhood, and in the decrepitude of age it 
(276) 



THE SECRET OF THE LORD. 277 

is alike within reach. But the natural eye can not 
discern it ; it requires that of faith. It is the Lord 
Jesus Himself who tells us that Pie is the living 
bread which came down from heaven, and that he 
that cometh to Him shall never hunger. It is that 
vital union with Him which He sets forth in an- 
other place under the figure of a branch abiding in 
and drawing sustenance from the vine. The pro- 
cess is a hidden one ; but the leaves and the fruit 
attest the reality of the nourishment which it draws. 
So the hidden manna of which Christ speaks is that 
all-satisfying grace which He gives His people, as 
the vine gives its strength and vitality to the 
branch. If they ever hunger it is their own fault. 
It is because they neglect to gather that hidden 
manna which was so sweet when they first found it. 
The Israelites in the desert, after feasting upon 
manna for a time, lusted after the flesh-pots of 
Egypt, and for this they suffered, just as Christians 
often neglect the hidden manna and seek after the 
wealth, honors, or pleasures of this world to their 
own serious detriment. 

The white stone is described by the apostle with- 
out a figure in these words : " The Spirit itself 
beareth witness with our spirit that we are the chil- 
dren of God ; and if children, then heirs ; heirs of 
God and joint heirs with Christ. " The white stone 
is our title-deed to that ineffable inheritance. No 
man can see the stone or the name written there- 
on save he that receiveth it ; for it is securely 
lodged in his own deep inner consciousness. He 
knows it, for he feels that it is there. With that 
knowledge he is able to say with the apostle : " I 



278 GATHERED SHEAVES. 

am persuaded that neither death, nor life, nor 
angels, nor principalities, nor powers, nor things 
present, nor things to come, nor height, nor depth, 
nor any other creature shall be able to separate us 
from the love of God which is in Christ Jesus our 
Lord." 

Dr. Watts, in one of the simplest and most beau- 
tiful of his lyrics, tells us what the possession of 
this white stone is where he says : 

" When I can read my title clear 
To mansions in the skies, 
I bid farewell to every fear, 
And wipe my weeping eyes." 

That poor penitent who went into the house of 
Simon the Pharisee where Jesus reclined at meat, 
washed His feet with her tears, wiped them with 
her hair, and then anointed them, and to whom He 
said, " Thy faith hath saved thee ; go in peace," 
bore away with her that blessed white stone with a 
name written on it which she alone could read. 
And she has it yet ; and that name written upon it 
will grow brighter and brighter forever. She over- 
came ; she loved much, and that hidden manna 
was thenceforth her food, and that white stone her 
most precious jewel — one that can never be taken 
from her. 




THE VITAL ELEMENT IN FAITH. 

jjlHERE is no grace around which more pre- 
cious promises cluster than that which in 
Scripture language is called Trust. Faith, 
in its dead or inoperative form, is simply belief; 
trust is confidence in or reliance upon that which 
is believed. The former, when alone, is dead ; but 
when combined with trust in God and His word, it 
becomes a living principle. It then constitutes that 
bond of union between the vine and the branches 
of which the Saviour speaks in the fifteenth chap- 
ter of John. 

We believe in thousands of things on the testi- 
mony of others, in which the element of trust is 
impossible ; for example, in the historical fact that 
such a man as Alexander the Great lived ; or in the 
scientific fact that Sirius is much larger than our 
sun. Such belief as this is belief of truth, and 
may in loose language be called Faith ; but it lacks 
the religious or vital element. Then again we may, 
without moral injury, believe in that which is not 
true. For many centuries the belief that this world 
was the centre of the universe, and that the sun, 
moon, and stars revolved around it, was held by 
all. But this error did no injury to those who en- 
tertained it, because in that hypothesis the element 
of trust did not and could not enter. On the other 
hand, in the days of Elijah a majority of the people 

(279) 



280 GATHERED SHEAVES. 

of Israel believed that Baal was God. This was a 
very different matter; because if they believed that 
Baal was God, they trusted in him as far as they 
trusted at all ; therefore trust in Jehovah was to 
them impossible. To accept an erroneous cosmical 
theory was not to believe a lie in the Bible sense of 
that phrase ; but to believe in Baal was to believe 
a lie, because it involved the religious element in 
those who did so. To believe in the living God 
and rely upon Him, or trust in Him, which is the 
same thing, is life ; but to believe and trust in a 
false god is death. 

Speaking as Christians we can not say that the 
mere belief in a historical or scientific fact or truth 
is faith, for it is not. Neither can the mere assent 
of the mind to the truth of religious facts or doc- 
trines be properly called faith. Important as such 
assent is, there is no life in it until the active prin- 
ciples of confidence, reliance, and trust come in and 
establish a^ personal union between Christ and the 
soul. This belief of the truth, this reliance upon 
and confidence in Him who is the centre and em- 
bodiment of all truth, is the faith that works by 
love, purifies the heart, overcomes the world, and 
casts out fear or dread. Nothing short of this prin- 
ciple, which not only accepts the truth, but combines 
trust with it, and thus becomes an active and saving 
power, is worthy of the name of Faith. 

" Believe in the Lord Jesus Christ and thou shalt 
be saved," said Paul in answer to the anxious in- 
quiry of the Philippian jailer. The man was anxious 
and greatly alarmed, and his question showed that 
he was eager to find something upon which he could 



THE VITAL ELEMENT IN FAITH. 28 1 

rely, something which he could trust in, to save 
him from the wrath to which his awakened con- 
science told him he was exposed. He did believe, 
and he did trust, and he found peace and joy in his 
new-found faith. He accepted as true not only that 
Jesus Christ came into the world to save sinners, but 
that he himself had an interest in that great salva- 
tion, that his sins were forgiven, that he was ac- 
cepted in the Beloved as a child of God, for the 
Spirit bore witness with his spirit that he was so, 
and hence Ave read that " he took them the same 
hour of the night and washed their stripes and was 
baptized, he and all his straightway ; and when he 
had brought them into his house he set meat before 
them, and rejoiced, believing in God with all his 
house." Here we see true Christian faith with all 
its proper elements and fruits. We see the assent 
of the reason, and the fond clinging of one who is 
in fearful danger, and fully aware of his danger, to 
the only name given amongst men whereby he 
could be saved. Then we see the fruits of that faith 
and joy in the love which prompted him to do all 
he could for the comfort of the much-abused men 
who had done so much for him. 

The jailer believed, trusted, appropriated, and 
joyfully rested upon the Saviour he had found, and 
became not almost but altogether a Christian. Now 
look at the difference between his case and that of 
Felix, before whom Paul reasoned of righteousness, 
temperance, and judgment to come until he trem- 
bled. He was deeply interested ; his judgment 
assented to the truth of what the apostle said ; he 
was alarmed, as we know by his trembling; but his 



282 GATHERED SHEAVES. 

heart was not ready just then to receive the truth 
in the love of it as the jailer had done. Then, 
partly to satisfy his own conscience, and partly out 
of politeness to his faithful and intrepid prisoner, 
he replied : " Go thy way for this time ; when I have 
a convenient season I will call for thee." Felix's 
reason did not reject the truth, but his heart did ; 
and there is no probability that that convenient 
season ever came in his case. 

So much for trust in Christ for salvation. Now 
let us look over that ail-embracing field of which 
the apostle speaks in this glorious text (Rom. viii. 
32) : " He that spared not His own Son, but deliv- 
ered Him up for us all, how shall He not with Him 
also freely give us all things?" That covers all, 
reaches to everything that affects our daily lives, 
even to what may be regarded as the most trivial. 
To give us the strongest possible impression of 
the extent of God's care for us, Jesus says: " The 
hairs of your head are all numbered." This is one 
of those great sayings of our Lord of which — while 
we never think of denying it — few of us make any 
practical use. How few of us feel a pleasant and 
constant assurance that God sustains and guides us 
in all our ways, in the smaller affairs of life as in 
the greater — that all our blessings, all our trials, no 
matter through what agency they may come, are 
from the Lord. David prays in the Seventeenth 
Psalm in these remarkable words : " Deliver my 
soul from the wicked which is Thy sword ; from 
the men which are Thy hand, O Lord." If even 
the injuries which come from the wicked are God's 
sword, God's hand, how much more are the bene- 



THE VITAL ELEMENT IN FAITH. 283 

fits which He heaps upon us ! When Satan desired 
to sift Peter and his companions as wheat, the Lord 
permitted him to do it. So far the devil acted as 
the Lord's instrument, and the result was good for 
them and for God's people of all generations. So 
when believers are reviled and persecuted, and all 
manner of evil said of them falsely, v/hat does the 
Master tell them to do ? Does He tell them to fret, 
and worry, and get angry, and quarrel, and fight, or 
to go to law against the slanderers? The very op- 
posite. He bids them rejoice and be exceeding 
glad, for great is their reward in heaven. He then 
most solemnly enjoins them not to resist evil. Now 
what principle underlies a cheerful obedience to 
this seemingly self-denying precept ? Trust in God, 
a persuasion that this wrong is permitted as a part 
of His fatherly discipline, and that He will make it 
work for good. Such a persuasion, when it acts 
upon the heart and life and subdues all unholy pas- 
sion, is trust in its sublimest manifestation, and 
renders the precepts, " Resist not evil," " Love your 
enemies," " Do good to them that hate you," " Pray 
for them that despitefully use you," as reasonable, 
as easy, and still more blessed than is obedience to 
that other beautiful precept, " Love the brethren." 
David, in the Psalm just quoted, gives us the key 
to all this in recognizing God's hand in the injuries 
inflicted upon him by the wicked. So much fot 
evil things. 

Now let us turn to good things — things which 
we need, things which conduce to our well-being in 
life. Psalm xxxiv. 10: "They that seek the Lord 
shall not want any good thing." Psalm xxxvii. 3 : 



284 GATHERED SHEAVES. 

"Trust in the Lord and do good; so shalt thou 
dwell in the land, and verily thou shalt be fed." 
Verses 23-25 : " The steps of a good man are or- 
dered by the Lord, and He delighteth in his way. 
Though he fall he shall not be utterly cast down ; 
for the Lord upholdeth him with His hand. I have 
been young and now am I old, yet have I not seen 
the righteous forsaken, nor his seed begging bread." 
Proverbs xvi. 20: "Whoso trusteth in the Lord, 
happy is he." Every one of these declarations and 
promises refers not to the life to come, but to this 
life, its vicissitudes, trials, wants, and supplies. They 
relate to things which are the objects of every-day 
faith or trust, and reach to the commonest things. 
David says, " I have been young and now I am old, 
yet have I not seen the righteous forsaken nor his 
seed begging bread." Of those people whom he 
had been observing during a long life it might have 
been added, they trusted in the Lord, and hence 
he calls them righteous. Like Abraham, they be- 
lieved, they trusted, and this trust was counted to 
them for righteousness. To them Christ's great 
rule applied, " as they believed so it was done unto 
them." 

It is sadly true that there are multitudes of true 
believers in Christ whose faith rarely reaches down 
to the every-day affairs of life. They trust their 
souls to Him as unto a faithful covenant God ; but 
as regards the affairs of this life they seem to act as 
if they were under a different administration. They 
trust more in themselves than in God. In the af- 
fairs of this life they appear to think that the only 
safe way is to walk by sight. They can not or will 



THE VITAL ELEMENT IN FAITH. 285 

not see God guiding the laws of nature, the laws of 
trade, and the vicissitudes of life just as truly as He 
guides the operations of His saving grace by His 
Holy Spirit. Many Christians live as though they 
believed that nature and human management were 
secular things and lay outside of God's dominion. 
Hence they do many things which they would not 
do, and ought not to do, and leave many things un- 
done which they ought to do and would do, were 
they able to see God ruling all things, and to be- 
lieve that He is able to make them work together 
for the good of those who trust in Him. Thus, as 
they believe so it is done unto them. If they pre- 
fer to trust in their own sagacity rather than in 
divine wisdom, they are left to drift before these 
lower forces and fall into difficulties, temptations, 
and snares, and into hurtful lusts, among which 
avarice is one of the most deadly. Often such peo- 
ple are suffered to fall into want and to be driven 
to their wits' end. 

The promise, be it remembered, is to those who 
put their trust in the Lord, not to those who do 
not. Let the words of the wisest of men close this 
article : " Trust in the Lord with all thine heart, 
and lean not unto thine own understanding. In all 
thy ways acknowledge Him, and He shall direct 
thy paths" (Proverbs iii. 5, 6). 



THE GRANDEUR OF CHRIST. 



N thinking of the greatness, the glory, the 
grandeur of the Lord Jesus Christ, the 
mind is apt to call to remembrance such 
passages as this from Phil. ii. 9 : " God hath highly 
exalted Him, and given Him a name which is above 
every name." Or that from Ephesians i. 20, 21, 
where the " Father of glory" is spoken of as raising 
Christ from the dead, and setting Him "at His own 
right hand in the heavenly places, far above all 
principality, and power, and might, and dominion, 
and every name that is named, not only in this 
world, but also in that which is to come." It is well 
that the mind of the believer should call to remem- 
brance such passages ; but such passages carry us 
into "light which no man can approach unto" — to 
what eye hath not seen, nor ear heard, nor heart 
conceived — to that which the saint will only know 
hereafter when he shall be brought " to see Him as 
He is." 

It is far better for us while down here, to be able, 
as John says he was, to behold His glory, the glory 
as of the only begotten of the Father, at the time 
when "the Word was made flesh and dwelt among 
us, full of grace and truth," than to indulge in our 
poor imaginings of the glory which lies beyond the 
experience of this mortal life. Let us then try to 
look unto Jesus, the Author and Finisher of our 
(286) 



THE GRANDEUR OF CHRIST. 2 87 

faith, while He was a dweller among us — while He 
was a man of sorrows ; while He was going about 
doing good ; while He was like 'into His brethren in 
labor, temptation, and suffering , while He stooped 
to the condition of the lowest without abating one 
iota of His personal dignity, or of His immeasura- 
ble claims, or of the grandeur of the incarnate God. 
It is of this that the evangelist John speaks when 
he says, "we beheld His glory." It is true that he 
says in another place, " It doth not yet appear what 
we shall be ; but we know that when He shall ap- 
pear we shall be like Him, for we shall see Him as 
He is." In this last utterance — one of the grandest 
ever penned — John is speaking of seeing Christ in 
His unveiled glory in heaven ; but in the other he 
is speaking of the glory which he saw in Him as he 
walked with Him in the days of His flesh. 

It is a poor and mistaken conception to suppose 
that Christ divested Himself of His glory when He 
assumed the human form. True, men could not see 
it, for it was veiled from their eyes. Even His lit- 
tle chosen flock could hardly see it while He walked 
with them and led them to fountains of living water ; 
but it did burst upon their minds afterward. Peter 
speaks of himself and of his fellow disciples as be- 
ing " eye-witnesses of His majesty"; while John, 
as already quoted, says, " we beheld His glory." 
Though meek and lowly in heart, as He declared 
Himself to be, He thought it not robbery to be 
equal with God, and claimed a measure of greatness, 
holiness, and power to which no limit can be as- 
signed, and made demands upon the love, fealty, 
and devotion of His people to the measure of which 



288 GATHERED SHEAVES. 

nothing can be added. Hear Him exclaim, " He 
that loveth father or mother more than me is not 
worthy of me." " Ye call me Master and Lord, 
and ye say well, for so I am." " Ye believe in God, 
believe also in me." " He that hath seen me hath 
seen the Father.'' " He that believeth on me, be- 
lieveth not on me (only) but on Him that sent me ; 
and he that seeth me seeth Him that sent me." 
" Whosoever liveth and believeth in me shall never 
die." " The Son of Man shall come in His glory 
and all the holy angels with Him ; then shall He 
sit upon the throne of His glory, and before Him 
shall be gathered all nations." These are a few of 
the many sayings of our Lord of Himself while He 
was in what theologians call His state of humilia- 
tion — at the time when, as Isaiah expresses it, He 
was despised and rejected of men, a man of sorrows 
and acquainted with grief — when He was so poor 
and needy that He uttered these words of inimita- 
ble pathos : " The foxes have holes and the birds of 
the air have nests ; but the Son of Man hath not 
where to lay His head." 

But we greatly err if we imagine that all this con- 
tempt and rejection, with their resultant grief and 
sorrow ; this poverty and destitution, with all the 
hunger, thirst, and weariness which His laborious 
life entailed, detracted in the smallest measure from 
the inherent glory and grandeur of ITis character. 
When He sat that day, weary, thirsty, and proba- 
bly hungry, at Jacob's well, in conversation with the 
woman of Samaria who had come to get water, He 
was no less glorious in the eyes of beings who were 
able to see Him as He was than He will be when 



THE GRANDEUR OF CHRIST. 289 

He sits upon the throne of His glory with all the 
holy angels around Him and all nations gathered 
before Him. Although His outward conditions were 
as humble as they could be, almost to the verge 
of mendicity, His language rose on that occasion to 
a height of grandeur and sublimity immeasurably 
beyond what any mere man could utter. Thus out 
of the lowest depths of what men call His humilia- 
tion, His glory, His dignity, and the moral gran- 
deur of His character shone forth with surpassing 
splendor. 

When at length the supreme moment of His 
mortal life arrived — when to erring mortal vision 
He was going down, down, down, step after step 
into the dark valley of death (and to Him it was in- 
deed very dark) He was really rising higher and 
higher in glory as our Mediatorial King; for then 
it was that " the Captain of our salvation was made 
perfect through suffering." 

An hour, probably, was spent in conversation in 
that upper chamber where He and His disciples 
had eaten the passover, and where He had just in- 
stituted the memorial supper. That conversation 
is recorded by John in the 13th, 14th, 15th, and 
1 6th chapters of his Gospel. Judas had gone out 
at the close of the paschal feast, and it pleased the 
Master to give him time to accomplish his wicked 
purpose. Then they left the chamber in the city 
and went down the hill and across the little valley 
to the garden of Gethsemane. In the meantime 
He offered up that wonderful intercessory prayer 
for His disciples and for all believers, in which His 
first burst of supplication is : " Father, the hour is 
J 9 



29O GATHERED SHEAVES. 

come ; glorify Thy Son that Thy Son also may glo- 
rify Thee." This was His surrender to the Father as 
an offering for sin. It was a prayer that the Lord 
would "lay upon Him the iniquity of us all." In 
those sublime words, if we are able to understand 
them aright, the unsearchable glory of Christ seems 
to be concentrated as in a focus. The eyes of all 
the redeemed and of the angelic hosts will forever 
be fixed in adoring wonder upon that voluntary act 
of surrender. 

In Gethsemane " it pleased the Lord to bruise 
Him and put Him to grief" in some way which 
we can not yet comprehend. Probably " over 
there " we shall be able to understand it. But in 
a little while, by meek submission, He overcame, 
and then we find Him, calm as ever, patiently 
awaiting the coming of the traitor and his band. 
Lest the officers should make a mistake in the dark 
and seize the wrong man, Judas had engaged to 
give them a sign by saluting Jesus with a kiss, the 
ordinary salutation of friends when they met. When 
at length the band drew near, Jesus spoke to the 
sleeping disciples, saying : " Rise, let us be going; 
behold, he is at hand that doth betray me." But 
He did not go away in order to avoid the officers 
who were sent to arrest Him ; on the other hand, 
He went out and met them and inquired, " Whom 
seek ye?" They answered, "Jesus of Nazareth." 
Judas' sign was not needed, although as a matter 
of form it was given, but only to call forth a sting- 
ing rebuke. He made the whole band also feel for 
a moment His invincible power; for His first reply, 
" I am He," caused them to 'reel backward and fall 



THE GRANDEUR OF CHRIST. 29 1 

to the ground. Again He advanced and repeated 
the question, " Whom seek ye ? " " Jesus of Naza- 
reth," was again the answer. The calm and reso- 
lute words, " I am He," once more fell upon their 
ears. Thus He almost compelled these men to do 
their duty ; for it was their duty as subordinate 
officers to apprehend Him. But this second time He 
added a command which neither they nor the men 
who sent them were able to violate — " If, therefore, 
ye seek me, let these go their way." Of course He 
meant His disciples. Then, as if to test the power 
of that command, Peter, in that moment of extreme 
excitement, drew his sword and cut off a man's ear 
in a mad attempt, single-handed, to rescue his be- 
loved Master. But for the almighty power of the 
divine prisoner Peter would most assuredly have 
been seized for this rash act, or perhaps cut to 
pieces on the spot. But not a hand was raised 
against him ; and he was, as his Master had com- 
manded, suffered to go his way. Then they bound 
Him, but not until at the gentle request of the pris- 
oner, " Suffer ye thus far," His arm was left at lib- 
erty long enough to touch the wounded man and 
heal him. 

I have dwelt more fully upon the opening scenes 
of the great tragedy, because I think they are less 
studied by Christians in general than they ought 
to be. In the scenes which followed in the palace 
of the high-priest in Pilot's hall, and on Calvary, 
where wicked men were permitted to do all that 
was in their power to crush and degrade Him, 
urged on as they were by the unrestrained venom 
of hell, the glories of Christ's character shone 



292 GATHERED SHEAVES. 

brighter and brighter. From the lowest depths 
the grandeur of our Immanuel sent forth its bright- 
est exhibition. In the hands of these wicked and 
cruel men He was not a helpless victim ; for, as 
He told Pilate, they had no power at all over Him 
except as it was given them from heaven. Not for 
a moment did He lay aside His native dignity, or 
cower and wilt while in their hands. It was thus 
that it behoved Christ to suffer ; it was thus that 
He was made perfect through suffering; and these 
awful scenes upon which we have been meditating, 
where Christ to us seems to be the most shorn of 
His glory, will form the theme of the everlasting 
song of the redeemed in glory: "Thou wast slain, 
and hast redeemed us to God by Thy blood." 




TRIAL AND TRIUMPH. 

glOHN in his seventeenth chapter gives us 
in full his intercessory prayer ; but in the 
twelfth chapter we have a cry of agony 
first spoken to those before Him, then in a brief 
petition to the Father, which is no sooner uttered 
than it is taken back — " Now is my soul troubled, 
and what shall I say?" Upon Him was laid the 
iniquity of us all. He saw as no other being could 
see, the tremendous flood of divine wrath coming 
upon Him, and He knew that the awful hour had 
come. For a moment He shrank back in horror, 
and cried, " Father, save me from this hour! " But 
in a moment more He remembered that even His 
Father could not save Him from that hour: for He 
adds, " but for this cause came I unto this hour." 
Oh, Christian, think of it! You have a Saviour; 
Jesus had none. You can flee from the wrath to 
come ; He could not. You can walk through the 
valley of the shadow of death and fear no evil, for 
the rod and staff of your great Shepherd comfort 
you ; but He, when He passed through, encountered 
and bore infinite evil. This filled Him with horror 
and alarm, and drew from Him that passionate but 
unavailing cry. On every side He was shut up. 
Even God could not save Him and remain true to 
His own law and faithful to His promises. That 
jeering cry which was uttered while He hung upon 

(293) 



294 GATHERED SHEAVES. 

the cross, was terrific because it was true — He saved 
others ; Himself He could not save. 

But after all He triumphed. Yielding His soul 
an offering for sin, He sprang to a higher plane and 
cried, " Father, glorify Thy name." At once a 
voice from the Eternal Throne replied, " I have 
both glorified it and will glorify it again." Then 
was given to Him a vision of " the travail of His 
soul," which scattered the thick darkness that had 
just involved Him, and at once left Him in His 
mental agony, yet lifted Him above it. His utter- 
ance of the cry, " Father, glorify Thy name," was 
the sublimest instance of submission on record — 
so great that it brought an audible response from 
heaven. 

We have heard His cry of anguish ; now we have 
His shout of triumph uttered the next minute: 
" Now is the judgment of this world ; now shall 
the prince of this world be cast out ; and I, if I be 
lifted up from the earth, will draw all men unto 
me." In all the history we have of the life and 
character of our Lord, there is no incident grander 
or more affecting than this. He was saved from no 
part of the awful penalty which He had taken upon 
Himself; the uttermost farthing was exacted ; He 
was not saved, nor could He be ; but He overcame 
all. While, like His brother man, He was weak 
and subject to anguish, terror, and even horror; 
like His Father, God, He was Almighty, and noth- 
ing was too hard for Him to accomplish, too heavy 
for Him to bear. 

But as He rose from deep distress, so may we, 
and by the same process — the full submission and 



TRIAL AND TRIUMPH. 295 

surrender of our will to the will of His Father and 
our Father, and by the hearty adoption of His 
prayer, " Father, glorify Thy name ! " Then, no 
matter how thick the darkness that surrounds us, or 
how wild the storm, He will at once lift us above 
them, and enable us to triumph as Jesus did on 
that occasion. 




CHRIST'S SURRENDER. 

JHE notion is apt to creep into some minds 
that our Saviour was finally overcome by 
His enemies — that the armed band which 
Judas led to the garden, and into whose hand he 
betrayed Him, was a power and a trap from which 
He could not escape. But this is a very mistaken 
idea. Not until His hour had come ; not until He 
had finished His active mission ; not until He had 
appointed the beautiful and simple rite which 
should commemorate His love and His death to 
the end of time ; not until He had uttered His 
farewell address to His disciples, which yet falls 
upon His people as a shower of heavenly manna ; 
not until He had made His great intercessory 
prayer for His immediate disciples, and for all who 
should believe on Him through their word ; and 
not until He had gone triumphantly through the 
horrors of Gethsemane, could any power either hu- 
man or satanic touch Him — not until, in His own 
good pleasure, He surrendered Himself to those 
who had long been eager to destroy Him. Herein 
we see the truth of His own sublime declaration, 
" I lay down my life for the sheep There- 
fore doth my Father love me because I lay down 
my life that I might take it again. No man taketh 
it from me, but I lay it down of myself. I have 
power to lay it down, and I have power to take it 
(296) 



CHRIST S SURRENDER. 297 

again " (John x.). Nothing can be clearer or stronger 
than these words. 

Let us look at a few incidents in the earlier days 
of His ministry. Luke tells us in his fourth chap- 
ter of the preaching of Jesus in the synagogue at 
Nazareth. At first the people were amazed at the 
gracious words which proceeded out of His mouth ; 
but as He went on they became angry, thrust Him 
out of the city, and led Him to the brow of the 
hill whereon it was built, that they might cast Him 
down headlong. But what says the historian ? 
" He passing through the midst of them went His 
way, and came down to Capernaum." They had 
no power to harm Him in the least; and yet He 
wrought no miracle to escape from the furious mob. 
Speaking of this incident, Canon Farrar, in his Life 
of Christ, remarks : 

" His hour was not yet come, and they were saved from 
the consummation of a crime which would have branded 
them with everlasting infamy. ' He passed through the 
midst of them and went on His way.' There is no need to 
suppose an actual miracle ; still less to imagine a secret and 
sudden escape into the narrow and tortuous lanes of the 
town. Perhaps His silence, perhaps the calm nobleness of 
His bearing, perhaps the dauntless innocence of His gaze 
overawed them. Apart from anything supernatural, there 
seems to have been in the presence of Jesus a spell of mys- 
tery and of majesty which even His most ruthless and 
hardened enemies acknowledged, and before which they 
involuntarily bowed. It was to this that He owed His es- 
cape when the maddened Jews in the Temple took up 
stones to stone Him ; it was this that made the bold and 
bigoted officers of the Sanhedrim unable to arrest Him as 
He taught in public during the feast of Tabernacles at Je- 
rusalem ; it was this that made the armed band of His ene- 



298 GATHERED SHEAVES. 

mies, at His mere look, fall before Him to the ground at 
the garden of Gethsemane. Suddenly, quietly, He asserted 
His freedom, waved aside His captors, and overawing them 
by His simple glance, passed through their midst unharmed. 
Similar events have occurred in history, and continue still 
to occur. There is something in defenceless and yet daunt- 
less dignity that calms even the fury of a mob. ' They 
stood — stopped — inquired — were ashamed — fled — : sepa- 
rated.' " 

As this quotation touches several other incidents 
in point, we pass on at once to that greatest of all 
such incidents, where our Lord at length surren- 
ders Himself to the will of His enemies, and thus 
fulfilled " the determinate counsel and foreknowl- 
edge of God," to be crucified and slain by their 
wicked hands. He had just uttered His interces- 
sory prayer. Then, probably, there was a short 
period of silence while He led them to Gethsemane. 
As He and the disciples walked a horror of great 
darkness fell upon Him, the nature or depth of 
which no finite mind can comprehend. He yearned 
for the company and the watchful and prayerful 
sympathy of His disciples, especially His favorite 
three, but they slept, and He had to pass through 
the awful conflict alone. His agonizing prayer that 
the cup might pass from Him could not be granted. 
He then bowed in meek submission to His Father's 
will ; but so terrible was the struggle that drops of 
bloody sweat fell to the ground. Still the poor 
dispirited disciples slept. Their spirit was willing, 
but their flesh was weak. Strength was sent to 
Him through an angel from heaven, and the victory 
was won. Then Jesus walked back to the disciples, 
and in pitying accents said, " Sleep on now and 



CHRIST'S SURRENDER. 299 

take your rest," while He Himself, calm as ever, 
took the place of watchman. He could now do 
without their society and their sympathy. How 
long He watched we know not, but it was probably 
but a short time ; for His next words were, " Rise, 
let us be going; behold, he is at hand that doth 
betray me ! " 

So far we have followed Matthew's narrative. 
Now we turn to John for the particular account of 
Christ's surrender, which Matthew and the other 
evangelists do not give. "Judas then, having re- 
ceived a band of men and officers from the chief 
priests and Pharisees, cometh thither with lanterns 
and torches and weapons. Jesus, therefore, know- 
ing all things that should come upon Him, went 
forth, and said unto them, Whom seek ye ? They 
answered Him, Jesus of Nazareth. Jesus saith 
unto them, I am He. And Judas also, which be- 
trayed Him, stood with them. As soon then as He 
had said unto them I am He, they went backward 
and fell to the ground. Then asked He them again, 
Whom seek ye? and they said, Jesus of Nazareth. 
Jesus answered, I have told you that I am He ; if 
therefore ye seek me let these go their way " (Jno. 
xviii. 3-8). 

Unquestionably there was something in the ef- 
fect which followed the first utterance of the words, 
" I am He," partaking of the nature of the miracu- 
lous, whether that effect was produced by the maj- 
esty of His countenance, the tone of His voice, or 
His unseen power. Their going backward and fall- 
ing to the ground attested their utter impotency to 
go in the slightest degree beyond His pleasure. 



300 GATHERED SHEAVES. 

His repetition of the question, "Whom seek ye?" 
would give them sufficient courage to repeat in 
trembling accents their first reply that they were 
seeking Jesus of Nazareth. " I have told you that 
I am He," said He ; " if therefore ye seek me, let 
these go their way." Thus He made a full surren- 
der of Himself to His enemies; but in the words, 
" let these go their way," He cast the shield of 
His omnipotence over His disciples, which all the 
powers of earth and hell could not have broken 
through or harmed a hair of their heads. While 
the officers were bringing their cords to bind their 
prisoner, the rash and inconsiderate Peter drew his 
sword and attacked the band single-handed, and 
with a furious but unskilful blow cut off a man's 
ear. Jesus saw it, bade him put up his sword, 
and then said, " Suffer ye thus far," and healed the 
wounded ear with a touch. What He meant by 
" suffer ye thus far " is uncertain ; but it was proba- 
bly a request to have His hand left free long enough 
to do that miracle of healing. But why was the 
impetuous Peter suffered to escape after such an 
act? Jesus had said, "let these go their way," 
and His was the same voice which had said in the 
beginning, " Let there be light," and there was light 
— the same voice which had said to the wind and 
the waves on the Galilean lake, " Peace, be still ! " 
It was the voice of Omnipotence. 

The surrender of Christ was altogether voluntary. 
He almost compelled those frightened officers to 
do what they supposed to be their duty, for they 
were men under authority. He commanded them 
to permit the disciples to go their way in peace, 



CHRIST S SURRENDER. 301 

and He was obeyed ; for on that occasion, and 
during the tumult of the. following day, not one of 
them was molested. In the deep darkness of that 
terrible hour, from the upper chamber to Joseph's 
tomb, the greatness and glory of our Redeemer 
shine forth with unabated lustre. All the way 
through, while apparently helpless and overcome, 
He vindicated the truth of His great saying, " I 
have power to lay down my life, and I have power 
to take it again. No man taketh it from me." 
Yet by wicked hands He was crucified and slain, 
and His murder was the most stupendous crime 
that ever was or ever can be perpetrated. Still it 
was in this way that " Jehovah laid upon Him the 
iniquity of us all." 

" Come, then, expressive Silence, muse His praise." 




LIMITING THE HOLY ONE. 

||LL power is given unto me in heaven and 
in earth," said Jesus, when He gave to 
His apostles their commission to go and 
teach all nations. No language can be more com- 
prehensive or more unlimited. As He is spoken 
of in First Timothy and in the Revelation, He is 
" the King of kings and Lord of lords." His 
dominion is absolutely boundless. All the forces 
of nature, the greatest and the least, are under His 
control, as He showed that they were when He 
commanded the winds and the waves and they 
obeyed Him ; when He constrained a fish in the 
Sea of Galilee to bring Him a little coin wherewith 
to pay His own and Peter's tribute ; and when even 
the grave gave up its dead at His bidding. " He 
doeth according to His will in the army of heaven 
and among the inhabitants of the earth." David, 
in the J2d Psalm, tells us emphatically that " all 
nations shall serve Him." Paul, writing to the 
Philippians, says: " God hath highly exalted Him 
and given Him a name which is above every name, 
that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, 
of things in heaven, and things in earth, and things 
under the earth." In the margin of the revised 
version, " things under the earth " is rendered 
" things of the world below "; or, as we would 
express it in the phraseology common to-day, 
(302) 



LIMITING THE HOLY ONE. 303 

" secular things," such as learning, science, inven- 
tions, laws, politics, and all the machinery of gov- 
ernment and civilization. In all these Scriptural 
expressions there are no limitations. When Jesus 
appeared in glorious vision to John on Patmos, He 
proclaimed Himself in these sublime words : " I am 
Alpha and Omega, the beginning and the ending, 
saith the Lord, who is, and who was, and who is 
to come, the Almighty." In all the New Testa- 
ment there is not a single passage which assigns to 
our Lord any definite field of authority or rule. 
Peter, in the house of Cornelius, speaking of Christ, 
says, " He is Lord of all." That word " all " em- 
braces every existing thing — Nature, to its utmost 
limits and with all its forces ; nations, with all their 
powers and institutions ; angels and men, and all 
things having life, whether on land or in the seas. 
The inspired word teaches us that the dominion of 
the Son embraces ALL in the broadest and fullest 
sense of that little yet boundless word. 

This being true, nations, as such, are under the 
dominion of Christ as the King of kings. They are 
bound at their peril to acknowledge that " Jesus 
Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father," 
and to take their places under Him as their supreme 
Lawgiver. It is not enough to speak in phrase as 
vague as it is grandiloquent of " the Supreme Ruler 
of the Universe," a being of whom man knows 
nothing except as He is revealed through His In- 
carnate Son. A being whom men call God may be 
so acknowledged while Christ is despised, rejected, 
and ignored. But such a being as that is not the 
Lord God of the holy prophets and Father of our 



304 GATHERED SHEAVES. 

Lord Jesus Christ — nothing indeed but a creature 
of the imagination which men conjure up and invest 
with such qualities and attributes as suit their own 
views. Just as well might they, as national rulers, 
set up the Jupiter of Grecian mythology, or the 
Allah of the Moslems, or the Brahma of the Hindoos 
as the Supreme Ruler, as that being whom they call 
God, apart from Him to whom the Eternal Father 
has committed all power and all authority in heaven 
and on earth, and through whom He has revealed 
His will to men. Yet this is as far as the Declara- 
tion of Independence goes ; as far as any of our 
State Constitutions go ; as far as our thanksgiving 
proclamations go. 

It is written, " The Father judgeth no man, but 
hath committed all judgment unto the Son ; that 
all men should honor the Son even as they honor 
the Father. He that honoreth not the Son honor- 
eth not the Father who hath sent Him." As a 
nation — I don't say as a people — we have not 
honored the Son, and, therefore, according to these 
words of God, spoken to us through the Son, we 
have not honored the Father. But, worse still, in 
our supreme national law there is not the slightest 
recognition of the Deity in any form, or of any 
source of authority higher than ourselves — "We 
the people of the United States." Under such a 
state of things we stand as an organized nation in 
jeopardy every hour ; for the awful words of Him 
who wields all power in the universe apply to na- 
tions as much as they do to individuals — " He that 
denieth me shall be denied before the angels of 
God." To ignore Him is to deny Him; for He 



LIMITING THE HOLY ONE. 30$ 

Himself declares, " He that is not with me is 
against me." There is no neutral ground. If the 
Word of God be true we are as a nation in danger 
of being dashed in pieces like a potter's vessel ; for 
He says in the Second Psalm that He will do this, 
and then adds this solemn admonition : " Be wise 
now, therefore, O ye kings ; be instructed, ye judges 
of the earth ; serve the Lord with fear and rejoice 
Avith trembling. Kiss the Son, lest He be angry, 
and ye perish from the way when His wrath is 
kindled but a little." Then He adds, " Blessed 
(happy) are all they that put their trust in Him." 
These warning words are addressed, not to religi- 
ous, but to civil rulers. 

" But," argue many, "we are not all agreed upon 
this subject. We have Jews among us who do not 
believe in Jesus Christ ; and there are others who 
do not accept the Bible as the word of God. We 
should, as it is falsely claimed, violate the con- 
sciences of such, and offend them, were we to ac- 
knowledge Jesus Christ as our supreme Lawgiver. 
This, it must be admitted, is our dilemma ; so we 
are obliged to elect whom we shall offend ; for we 
can not avoid giving offence to some of the parties 
concerned. If we ignore Christ we shall avoid any 
quarrel with Jews and Infidels ; but according to 
the above-quoted texts we shall grievously offend 
our God, be in danger of perishing— of being dashed 
in pieces. We are left free to choose whom we 
shall endeavor to please ; and if the good-will 
of the Jew and the Infidel is preferred to that 
of 'Him who dwelt in the bush/ and whose 
solemn warning is quoted above, it is to be pre- 



306 GATHERED SHEAVES. 

sumed that we are prepared to abide the conse- 
quences." 

This, however, is not the particular point at 
which I am at present aiming. There is a phrase, 
current and hackneyed, which has crept into use, 
especially in our pulpits, in which our Redeemer is 
spoken of as " the King and Head of the Church." 
To most minds the phrase sounds reverent and de- 
vout — quite unexceptionable. It did so to mine 
until I thought about it more closely, and discov- 
ered that no such language or idea is to be found 
in the inspired volume. True, Paul speaks of Him 
as " the head of the body, the Church "; but that 
is very different from the phrase to which I am 
taking exception ; for it, taken in connection with 
that much-abused text — " My kingdom is not of 
this world " — limits, in the minds of multitudes of 
simple-hearted believers, the kingdom of our blessed 
Lord to the Church, and to the Church alone, ex- 
cluding nations as such, and all human beings, and 
all affairs outside of the Church — what we call " the 
world," as contradistinguished from the Church ; 
thus leaving them outside of any known or revealed 
supernal authority, or rule, or care, to be driven 
by the blind forces of Nature, or Chance, or Acci- 
dent, or the erratic passions, opinions of men, with- 
out the guiding hand of Him who tells us that He 
is invested with universal dominion, of whose king- 
dom there is no limit either in space or in duration, 
and whose law binds us as firmly in the act of cast- 
ing a ballot as in that of partaking of the Lord's 
Supper. Such man-made phrases, however rever- 
ent, sincere, and well intended, are harmful, be- 



LIMITING THE HOLY ONE. 307 

cause misleading. This one leads — not intention- 
ally, but blindly — to erroneous notions as to the 
extent of the kingdom, rule, providence, and care 
of the King of kings, confining Him in idea to the 
Church, and leaving everything else to what some 
choose to call " the general providence of God " — 
another man-made phrase, incapable of definition — 
or to Natural Law, as others would prefer to ex- 
press it ; or to chance or luck, as the ignorant and 
profane imagine ; all of which, however expressed, 
is a vast, vague, unknown, undefined administration 
carried on, or suffered to drive on, outside of the 
Church, and of course, in the thoughts of many, 
outside of the dominion of Him whom that unfor- 
tunate phrase confines to that limited dominion. 



GAMALIEL'S TEST. 

|HE progress of Christianity in the world is, 
in itself, a greater wonder than any miracle 
recorded in the Scriptures. Let. us look at 
it for a moment from a strictly human stand-point. 
In the village of Nazareth there dwelt a poor fami- 
ly, the head of which earned his livelihood by work- 
ing as a carpenter. The oldest juvenile member of 
that family assisted in this labor. After thus living 
an obscure life until He was about thirty years of 
age this young man left Nazareth and entered upon 
a course of public teaching, calling around Him a 
little band of disciples composed of men as poor 
and obscure as Himself. His wisdom as a teacher 
and His kindness as a benefactor drew multitudes 
around Him ; but the boldness of His utterances 
and the novelty of His doctrines excited the bitter- 
est jealousy and opposition among the ruling classes 
of His countrymen. No man ever was more unpro- 
tected, so far as visible and tangible forces and in- 
fluences were concerned, than He. His followers 
added nothing whatever to His security, and He 
was so poor that He Himself, in sublime pathos, 
exclaimed, " Foxes have holes and the birds of the 
air have nests ; but the Son of Man hath not where 
to lay His head." Thus He wandered from place 
to place, instructing, comforting, healing, and bless- 
ing all who came to Him, at the same time fear- 
(308) 



GAMALIEL S TEST. 309 

lessly denouncing the hypocrisy and wickedness 
of His enemies. Thus He exasperated them 
more and more, until finally He was arrested, 
subjected to a mock trial, and crucified as a male- 
factor. 

His terrified disciples at first fled in dismay ; then 
cautiously came together again in secret, with closed 
doors. Their teacher was gone. No organization 
had been formed. Not a word of all that that hum- 
ble but extraordinary man had uttered had been re- 
corded. To all appearance the short career of the 
sage and prophet of Nazareth had come to an end, 
and not only to an end, but a disgraceful end ; and 
very soon He and all who had attached themselves 
to Him would be forgotten. And so they would 
have been had He been nothing more than a highly- 
gifted man. Nothing in the world would have come 
to naught more quickly. Gamaliel reasoned cor- 
rectly when he told his brethren of the Jewish San- 
hedrim to " refrain from these men and let them 
alone; for if this council or this work be of men, it 
will come to naught ; but if it be of God ye can not 
overthrow it ; lest haply ye be found even to fight 
against God " (Acts v. 38, 39). Never was sounder 
logic uttered by human lips than these words of 
Gamaliel. His advice had some effect upon the 
Jewish authorities, so that they did not, on that 
occasion, go to the length they had intended ; but 
they did not let them alone ;. for no sooner had 
Gamaliel spoken than they called the apostles and 
beat them and commanded that they should not 
speak in the name of Jesus. 

How was it that these frightened disciples, who 



310 GATHERED SHEAVES. 

had now become eloquent and intrepid apostles, be- 
gan the work of establishing and organizing the 
Christian Church so soon after the apparently igno- 
minious death of their Master ? True, He was dead ; 
but He was alive again. He had risen from the 
tomb. They had seen Him and conversed with Him 
after His resurrection. He had given them their 
commission as His witnesses, and commanded them 
to tarry in the city until they should be clothed 
with power from on high. That power came on 
the day of Pentecost in the great outpouring of 
the Holy Spirit, and from that hour they bold- 
ly proclaimed those things which they knew to 
be true ; and by signs and wonders God Himself 
bore them witness that what they taught was the 
truth. 

But the Jewish rulers persisted in the face of all 
testimony both human and divine to reject Christ, 
and never ceased to persecute His followers. When 
they succeeded in putting Jesus to death they sup- 
posed that they had put an end to Him and His 
cause ; and had the work been of men, as Gamaliel 
said, His death would have put an end to it ; and 
probably not a man who has lived within the past 
seventeen centuries would have known that such a 
man as Jesus of Nazareth had ever existed. Noth- 
ing could have prevented the utter wiping out of 
His memory. 

But when a few ignorant and unlearned men, 
armed with courage, skill, eloquence, and miracu- 
lous power, but with all earthly influences against 
them, burst upon the world and persuaded thou- 
sands to accept the Crucified One as their Saviour, 



GAMALIEL S TEST. 31 1 

they were more puzzled, more perplexed, than they 
had been in the days of the Master whom they 
crucified. Still they resisted more and more furi- 
, ously. They had power ; the followers of Jesus had 
none ; for He sent them forth, as He said He would, 
as sheep in the midst of wolves. They were im- 
prisoned, stoned, slain with the sword, scattered 
abroad ; but still they triumphed in spite of all the 
opposition, rage, and persecution of Jews and Gen- 
tiles. Had the religion of Christ had no higher ori- 
gin than man, however gifted, it would have been 
stamped out of existence before the close of the 
century in which it originated. Gamaliel was right ; 
and let his words be the test of the divine element 
in the Christian religion. Had it not been of God 
one hundredth part of the opposition it has met 
with would have been sufficient to sweep it from the 
earth. Indeed, the death of Jesus alone would have 
put an end to it. 

But now what do we see ? Eighteen hundred and 
fifty years have elapsed since Jesus died on Calvary, 
and still the religion which He instituted is the 
ground upon which the hopes of millions upon mill- 
ions of the best and most enlightened of the in- 
habitants of the earth rest. Empires have risen, 
flourished, and fallen, but it remains, and is spread- 
ing farther and farther, carrying with it benefits and 
blessings, learning, science, civil freedom, the reign 
of law, and in short all that marks an advanced civil- 
ization. Still, like the sun, it shines upon this dark 
and disordered world, and as well might men talk 
of superseding the sun as to discover a substitute 
for Christianity. 



312 GATHERED SHEAVES. 

Unaided by earthly power it started and fought 
its way through centuries of opposition. It has 
ever been strongest when the most separated from 
the powers of this world, and weakest and least 
efficient when the most closely united to those 
powers. All this proves that it is of God and not 
of men ; for, so far from coming to naught, its po- 
tency over the affairs of men is ever increasing. 
No name on earth is now or ever has been so dear, 
so precious as that of Jesus. For His sake great 
multitudes have gladly laid down their lives in 
martyrdom, and still more have labored during life 
to make His name known to those who knew it 
not. The year of His birth is the central chrono- 
logical era of all civilized nations from which dates 
are reckoned both backwards and forwards. In 
short, that poor Galilean peasant, who had no learn- 
ing of the schools, no wealth, no patrons, and in 
fact less outward advantages than ordinary men, 
and who was at length put to death as a malefactor 
with all the ignominy which men could heap upon 
Him, and this before He had organized any thing, 
or had written a word, and while still a young man, 
has this day a name which is above every name, a 
name as far excelling the greatest heroes of history 
as the sun excels the meteor that shoots athwart 
the sky. Were that name only a human name, had 
His work been only the work of a man, both would 
have sunk into utter oblivion long, long ago. Ga- 
maliel reasoned well when he said that if this work 
were of men it would come to naught ; but if it be 
of God it can not be overthrown. Let his words, 
his test, be the answer to Col. Ingersoll, and such 



GAMALIELS TEST. 313 

people as he, who are trying to discredit the story 
of Jesus of Nazareth, who claimed to be the Son of 
God, and whose claim not only the history of the 
world for more than eighteen centuries, but also 
what we all see and know to be true this day, 
abundantly attest. In cool, calm rationality noth- 
ing can be sounder than this, nothing can be 
fairer than Gamaliel's test. He was not a friend of 
Christ, but he was a wise and prudent man. Very 
likely his ardent hope was that it would prove to 
be of men by coming to naught ; but yet he saw in 
it a measure of life and potency for which he could 
not account, and hence his prudent counsel to his 
more impetuous associates. 

This God-given vitality which the Church of 
Jesus Christ exhibits at this day, as well as it did 
in the long centuries past, is a stupendous miracle. 
It is one which we can all see for ourselves. Every 
century gives it increased strength. It affords the 
fullest assurance that Jesus of Nazareth is the 
Christ, the Son of God, the Messiah of the Hebrew 
prophets, the Saviour of the world ; and that His 
record as we find it in the New Testament is true. 
Therefore it is also true that " there is none other 
name under heaven given among men whereby we 
must be saved." 

The application of this test with which a shrewd 
and sagacious man who was not a friend of Christ 
has furnished us, is of incalculable value ; for while 
it may settle and satisfy the mind of the honest 
doubter, it can be used with great effect in shut- 
ting the mouths of scoffers and blasphemers. More- 
over it is calculated to strengthen the faith and in- 



3 H GATHERED SHEAVES. 

tensify the devotion of true believers. Paul touches 
this thought when he says : " God hath chosen the 
weak things of the world to confound the things 
which are mighty, .... that no flesh should glory 
in His presence." 




THIS WORLD— THIS LIFE. 

i]0 come into conscious existence from a state 
of non-existence is a marvellous experience. 
Were we ushered into being instantane- 
ously, in the full powers of mature manhood, the 
experience of which we are speaking would be 
overwhelmingly wonderful. But the process of the 
development of mental power from unconscious 
infancy to mature human life is so gradual that we 
are hardly sensible of it. We find ourselves sur- 
rounded by beings like ourselves who were here be- 
fore us, and their experience we unconsciously ap- 
propriate to ourselves. We learn their language, 
we imitate their actions, and like them become 
familiar with our surroundings. Knowledge flows 
in from every side, from experience, from observa- 
tion, from instruction ; and thus by a process so 
gradual that we hardly notice it, we arrive at what 
we call maturity ; and then in our turn become 
teachers of others who have arrived since we did. 

And this is what we call life. We soon learn 
that it must be short ; but still it is all we are able 
to see. So far we are no higher than animals en- 
dowed with reasoning powers, and are naturally 
prone to seek our portion in this mortal life. So 
strong is this propensity that thousands who firmly 
believe in immortality, who know that this is not 
their rest, that here they have no continuing city, 

(3i5) 



316 GATHERED SHEAVES. 

and who often read the injunction of Him whom 
they acknowledge as their Lord and Master not to 
be anxious about the cares of this life, and not to 
set their hearts upon treasures upon earth, are as 
eager to acquire wealth and are as much concerned 
about their worldly affairs, as if this fleeting life 
were all that they should ever know. The earnest- 
ness of the exhortations of Jesus on this subject 
shows us its importance in His estimation, and also 
the strength of the propensity of the human mind 
to look at the things of this life from an opposite 
stand-point. 

What is this world ? Astronomically considered 
it is but one small planet among, probably, many 
millions — a planet marred by sin, suffering, sorrow, 
and death. Were it blotted out of existence it 
would hardly be missed even in our own solar sys- 
tem ; in any other solar system not at all. And 
what is life when viewed apart from another and 
future life? Is it worth living? In itself it is not, 
nor was it intended to be. 

But what is this world when viewed in the light 
of heaven ? Dr. Patton, in his opening sermon be- 
fore the General Assembly, some two years ago, 
in the most confident terms called it " the Elect 
Planet of the Universe." Why so? Because on 
this planet God the Creator of the universe became 
incarnate, and to-day a human hand wields the 
sceptre over all things. Just before He ascended, 
Jesus uttered these solemn words : "All power is 
given unto me in heaven and in earth." In the 
light of these plain, unmistakable words, Dr. Pat- 
ton's strong language can not be gainsaid, for the 



THIS WORLD — THIS LIFE. 317 

hand of Jesus — a name at which every knee shall 
bow (see Phil. ii. 10) — is a human hand, while at 
the same time it is absolutely divine. 

In the relation established between the divine 
and the human in the incarnation we are able to 
see the grandeur of this world of ours — this theatre 
of the birth, life, labors, sufferings, death, and resur- 
rection of the Son of God. His life and His aton- 
ing death is a theme which will fill all heaven with 
songs of praise forever and ever. This is a relation 
which lifts those who, by receiving Christ, acquire 
the right to become children of God, joint heirs 
with Christ, partakers of His divine nature, partners 
of His throne, and whom He is not ashamed to call 
His brethren, to a dignity which, to us who are still 
here, is altogether inconceivable. " It doth not yet 
appear what we shall be," says John ; " but we know 
that when He shall appear we shall be like Him." 

" In my Father's house (doubtless meaning all 
this great universe) there are many mansions "; but 
in the next sentence the Saviour intimates that not 
one among them was suitable for Himself and for 
His redeemed ones, His brethren, His spouse; for 
He adds, " I go to prepare a place for you." It 
must be a place not yet prepared ; but one where 
He and they shall dwell together; for He says, 
" If I go and prepare a place for you, I will come 
again and receive you unto myself, that where I am 
there ye may be also." These are wonderful words, 
and as plain and simple as they can be. What He 
says He means literally. As John says, " It doth 
not yet appear what we shall be," nor do we know 
where we shall be ; but we do know that we shall 



31 8 GATHERED SHEAVES. 

be with Him, that we shall see Him, and that we 
shall be like Him. But eye hath not seen, nor ear 
heard, nor imagination conceived, the surpassing 
glories of that place. Not one of the existing many 
mansions in His Father's house can compare with 
that which Jesus is now preparing, and where the 
redeemed from this scene of sin and sorrow shall 
eat the marriage supper of the Lamb. 

Some suppose that this earth, changed, reno- 
vated, and glorified, will be the abode of the 
redeemed. But this is mere speculation. None 
can positively deny it ; but for my own part I do 
not hold that opinion ; for it is nothing but an 
opinion. It is one of those things that " do not yet 
appear "; nor do we know that that abode will 
have all the conditions of a fixed locality. 

Now how transcendently important do this world 
and this life appear when viewed as the seed-bed 
and the preparatory school for that glorious and 
everlasting residence of which we have just been 
speaking ! This world was distinguished beyond 
all other worlds by the life, the atoning death, and 
the glorious resurrection of the incarnate God, and 
this life dignified by being made the school of 
Christ where His redeemed, His chosen ones, are 
born again and thus made children of God. It is 
this relation of our world to a better world, this 
mortal life to a glorious immortality, that gives to 
both this world and this life a grandeur and a dig- 
nity worthy of Almighty God their Creator, who 
" so loved the world that He gave His only begot- 
ten Son, that whosoever believeth in Him should 
not perish, but have everlasting life." 



THIS WORLD — THIS LIFE. 319 

Bunyan tells us of a poor creature whom Chris- 
tian saw on his pilgrimage, who was so busily en- 
gaged with a muck-rake, gathering sticks and straws, 
that he never lifted his eyes heavenward, nor inter- 
mitted what seemed to be his life-work. This world, 
this life, were all that that poor man had or cared 
to have. Perchance he was so skilful, so industrious, 
so successful, that he became a millionaire ; but 
certain it is, he never acquired what Jesus calls the 
true riches. What Christian saw was only a sam- 
ple of a numerous class, and a class that is often 
highly esteemed among men. How much wiser 
and better it is to regard this life as a pilgrimage, 
and this world as not our rest, but only a pilgrim- 
age, a school, a place of trial and discipline ; in a 
word, just what our Lord teaches us to regard it ; 
so that we may by faith learn to trust and serve 
Him, be the recipients of His daily care and bounty, 
and walk always in the light of His countenance, 
thus making this world, with all its labors, sorrows, 
and sufferings, the best possible vestibule of heaven. 

The man who is able to see this world and this 
life in the light just spoken of, and who has got too 
high to see them in any other light, enjoys life im- 
measurably better than does any worldling, how- 
ever prosperous and however blessed with physical 
health. It may please God to grant him prosper- 
ity ; but if riches increase he will not set his heart 
upon them, because he knows that he has a better, 
purer, richer, and more enduring inheritance. He 
may have large possessions on earth ; but his treas- 
ure and his heart will be on high. Or it may seem 
good to the Lord to give him but little of this 



320 GATHERED SHEAVES. 

world's goods. The fair designs he schemes may 
be crossed, his gourds blasted, and he laid low. 
Still, if his treasure, his heart, and his hope be in 
heaven, he will know and feel that all is well, and 
that, come what may, he will not lack any good 
thing, because he trusts in the promise of his God. 
He can say just as confidently as David did, " I 
shall not want." Often the sweetest moments in 
a good man's life are experienced in times of the 
darkest adversity ; and we may greatly err when 
we call prosperity in our worldly affairs a blessing, 
and adversity an evil, a trial, an affliction. Pros- 
perity, when viewed from the truest stand-point, 
is a severer trial than the opposite condition. Some 
are not able to stand it at all ; others are. There is a 
world of wisdom in these few words of the psalmist : 
" It is good for me that I have been afflicted "; and 
in these : " Thou in faithfulness hast afflicted me "; 
and in many other similar utterances of good men 
who spake as they were moved by the Holy Spirit, 
and yet spoke of their own personal experience: 

It is only when we set our affections on things 
above that we are able to put this world and this 
mortal life in their proper and subordinate places. 
Then and only then can we extract all the good 
out of them that is in them. In that lower place 
they are good, because the light of God's counten- 
ance and the abiding sense of His love illuminate 
them, and give us a peace and satisfaction which 
render all inferior amusements, excitements, and 
pleasures so unnecessary that we shall not be in- 
clined to seek them as things essential to our hap- 
piness ; and yet these very things will be abun- 



THIS WORLD — THIS LIFE. 32 1 

dantly strewn along the path of our pilgrimage as 
additional tokens of the loving-kindness of the Lord 
of the way. 

But let us be destitute of an inheritance on high, 
and let our chief good be sought in this world, and 
bitter disappointment and unrest are sure to be our 
portion. When the chief end of man terminates 
on this world and this life, whether that end be ob- 
jects of ambition, or wealth, or sensual enjoyment, 
however refined, the inevitable result is disappoint- 
ment and vexation of spirit. 

But yet this world is good, " very good," as the 
Creator said it was when He put man upon it as 
its crown. We can not imagine an abode better 
adapted to such sinful beings as we are. The Lord 
knew what He was doing when He made it what it 
is ; and it was in full view of all that should tran- 
spire in Eden that He pronounced it to be "very 
good." Satan did not spoil it ; but he was permit- 
ted to make a breach through which Immanuel en- 
tered. His presence made this earth superlatively 
good, " the Elect Planet of the Universe," as Dr. 
Patton expresses it. Therefore let us rejoice in all 
that our Heavenly Father has done or permitted 
to be done. And let us thank Him for making the 
pilgrimage of life so brief that in a little while we 
shall reach a higher heaven than we could have 
ever reached had Adam kept his first estate. All 
is well ; and be assured, dear ransomed sinner, that 
you are highly favored among God's creatures in 
having your lot cast in this world where Jesus spent 
a life of labor and sorrow, where He died for our 
redemption and rose again for our justification. 




TIME AND ETERNITY. 

j|HESE are words we often hear, and still 
oftener think of ; but how shall we define 
them? Sometimes we hear them spoken 
of as if the one were progressive, the other fixed 
and immovable. Sometimes they are spoken of as 
if they were distinct and separate ideas — conditions 
which do not coexist. Hence it is common to say 
of people whose mortal life has terminated that 
they have passed into eternity — that they have 
done with time. Some journalists have a stereo- 
typed phrase in speaking of a person who has paid 
the death penalty for crime, that he was " launched 
into eternity." 

But this is all wrong. Take two other words, 
space (that is, boundless or infinite space) and local- 
ity. The one is analogous to eternity, the other to 
time ; but in both cases the less is contained in the 
greater. Our sun, together with his system, has a 
locality in space ; the earth has its locality in the 
solar system ; and the American continent, the city 
of London, and the cottage of the peasant have 
their respective localities on the surface of the earth. 
Yet all are in that infinite space which has neither 
metes nor bounds, just as a minute, an hour, a day, 
or a year is embraced in that boundless period 
which we know by the term Eternity, and which 
has neither beginning nor end. " From everlasting 
(322) 



TIME AND ETERNITY. 323 

to everlasting Thou art God," expresses the eternity 
of Jehovah as strongly as it could be expressed in 
the Hebrew language ; but the English phrase, the 
Eternal God, is stronger still. The Greeks expressed 
the idea of a future duration. with phrases of differ- 
ent degrees of strength, as "age," "ages," "ages of 
ages," and " all the ages." The idea underlying 
those Greek phrases seems to be that of an endless 
scries of ages or periods more or less distinct. In 
Matthew xiii. 40, Jesus speaks, as it is in our trans- 
lation, of " the end of the world." In the Greek 
it is the end or consummation of the age, or the 
period now passing. The periods immediately suc- 
ceeding are spoken of as ages, while indefinite ex- 
tension of duration is "ages of ages," or " all the 
ages," the same as is expressed in the English text 
by the phrase " forever and ever." These successive 
ages are the days of Eternity. 

In all these forms of expression the idea of pro- 
gressive duration is maintained, and that of fixed- 
ness or immutability is excluded. Geology teaches 
us that distinct periods, different from the one 
through which we are now passing, have left their 
impress upon this globe. In the first chapter of 
Genesis God has given us a glimpse of several of 
these — there called " days " — while Peter tells us 
that we may look for new heavens and a new earth 
after the age now passing shall have ended. Thus 
change after change will go on, each better than 
the past, in the endless future ; and every one to 
whom Jesus gives eternal life will have a share in 
all of them ; and, after he has passed through more 
of these ages than the arithmetic of mortals is able 



324 GATHERED SHEAVES. 

to compute, an endless, undiminished series of 
other ages, other changes, will still lie before him. 
The length of existence through which the possess- 
or of eternal life shall have passed will, however, 
always be finite, measurable, computable. But oh ! 
when the mind turns to that Being who " inhabits 
eternity," to whom this endless series of ages is at 
once and always present, how it sinks down in utter 
impotency of comprehension ! 

But these ages, endless in number, will all be 
measured by Time. It can measure the period of 
creatures of a day and also that of all those who 
are endowed with the power of an endless life. 
Time itself and all that has come into existence in 
the past ages, however remote, or in the present 
age, or in the ages to come, are finite. None are 
infinite in duration or ever can be, notwithstanding 
their life will never end. God alone is great, God 
alone is infinite, God alone is eternal, God alone is 
immutable. 

How grand is the prospect before those to whom 
is given the unspeakable boon of an endless life ! 
They will not only see Him who made all things, 
and who gave His life's blood to redeem them, but 
they will be led by Him to living fountains of 
water. They will see Him putting forth His bound- 
less power in the creation and government of un- 
numbered worlds. We read of " the glory of His 
power," as well as the " riches of His grace," and 
of His love " which passeth knowledge." We now 
know something of the beauties of this world, and 
have a distant view of the glories of the starry 
heavens ; but God is able to give us power to flit 



TIME AND ETERNITY. 325 

from world to world and from system to system as 
easily as a winged insect flits from flower to flower, 
and doubtless He will do it ; for the Scripture says, 
" all things are yours." 

The flight of time is to us what it is. It seems 
to drag along slowly. A year is a good while in 
our experience. In another state of being it may 
be very different. The little creature which we call 
an ephemeron, which comes into being and dies the 
same day, if capable of it, may esteem its life as 
long as we do ours. So in heaven the flight of time 
may seem to be incomparably more swift than it is 
in this life. True, this is only speculation ; but I 
am inclined to think that it is so. If so, the spirit 
of a just man made perfect will only have "a little 
while " to wait until his body shall be called from 
the grave to share in the glory and bliss of a full 
salvation. 



"THE MORNING COMETH." 

JNE of the grandest and most mysterious 
utterances of the Prophet Isaiah is found 
in the twenty-first chapter. It is all com- 
prised in two verses, and stands unconnected with 
anything which precedes or follows it. It is this : 

" The burden of Dumah. He calleth to me out of Seir, 
Watchman, what of the night ? Watchman, what of the 
night ? 

"The watchman said, The morning cometh, and also the 
night. If ye will inquire, inquire ye. Return, come." 

The question to the watchman may have been 
the utterance of scorn and intellectual pride— a 
mere banter, and is doubled only to intensify it. It 
is something like the question which Pilate asked 
Jesus: "What is truth?" and then strode out of 
the hall without waiting for or wishing for a reply. 
But in the case before us the watchman did re- 
ply, and upon that reply I propose to offer some 
thoughts. 

He who called to the watchman out of Seir rec- 
ognized the fact that it was night. Darkness then 
covered the earth and gross darkness the people. 
This darkness had prevailed ever since Adam fell. 
When Noah built the ark the darkness was very 
deep. It was night when Abraham was called out 
of Ur of the Chaldees, and the darkness was stead- 
(326) 



"THE MORNING COMETH." 3.27 

ily deepening. It was night while the chosen peo- 
ple were bondmen in Egypt. It was night during 
all the time Israel as a nation occupied the prom- 
. ised land. The darkness which then overshadowed 
all the outside world was like that of Egypt, a 
darkness so dense that it could be felt ; yet during 
that night of thousands of years God's people 
never ceased to have light in their dwellings, as 
Israel had in those three days when all the Egyp- 
tians were enshrouded in that blackness of darkness 
of which we read in Exodus x. 21-23. 

And it was still night when Jesus came. Then 
there was light ; but although, as John tells us, 
" the light shined in darkness, the darkness compre- 
hended it not." Still, to the eye of faith, through 
all the centuries that have rolled their sluggish 
rounds since Jesus lived and died and rose again, 
there have been signs that " the morning cometh." 
Through the dark ages the gloom was so deep that 
the most hopeful could hardly see the least trace of 
that long-promised dawn. Generation after gener- 
ation of believers lived and cried, " O Lord, how 
long? " and died without the sight. 

But when the Reformation burst upon the world 
they were able to say, as the poet Bowring so beau- 
tifully expresses it, 

" Watchman, tell us of the night ! 
For the morning seems to dawn." 

That much Luther, Zwinglius, Calvin, Knox, and 
their contemporaries could say. But now in our 
day the light is so broad and bright that we are 
sure that "the morning cometh" — that soon "the 



328 GATHERED SHEAVES. 

Sun of Righteousness will arise with healing in His 
wings." 

But in our gladness at seeing this ever brighten- 
ing light, let us not lose sight of the other clause in 
the watchman's reply. " The morning cometh," 
he says; and then he adds, "and also the nighty 
The morning and the night are spoken of as com- 
ing together, simultaneously. Strange ; but it is 
even so. Darkness, in the figurative language of 
prophecy, signifies tribulation, perplexity, popular 
commotion, distress, anguish, apprehension, vio- 
lence, strife, war, and fierce contention. It means 
the absence of knowledge, and of joy, and hope, 
and peace— of trust in God and faith in man, and 
consequently of love and good-will. Jesus expresses 
this condition of things with appalling force when 
He says that upon the earth there shall be " dis- 
tress of nations, with perplexity, the sea and the 
waves roaring ; men's hearts failing them for fear, 
and for looking after those things which are com- 
ing on the earth." These things He assures us are 
to come. And what then ? Are His people to be 
alarmed when they see this awful period of dark- 
ness and terror approaching? Hear His calm and 
cheering words : " When these things begin to come 
to pass, then look up and lift up your heads, for 
your redemption draweth nigh." In plain and sim- 
ple terms, He but echoes the joyful shout of Isaiah's 
watchman : " The morning cometh, and also the 
night "; and also that of Isaiah's blood-stained war- 
rior travelling from Bozrah in the greatness of his 
strength : " The day of vengeance is in mine heart, 
and the year of my redeemed is come." 



"THE MORNING COMETH." 329 

It is remarkable that in more places than can be 
cited here, the prophets couple together the morn- 
ing of the latter-day glory and the darkness and 
terror of the great tribulation which is to come 
upon the earth at the same time. In the Second 
Psalm God the Son says, " I will declare the decree : 
Jehovah hath said unto me, Thou art my Son ; this 
day have I begotten Thee. Ask of me and I will 
give Thee the heathen (the nations) for Thine inher- 
itance, and the uttermost parts of the earth for Thy 
possession ! " Now mark what immediately follows : 
" Thou shalt break them with a rod of iron ; Thou 
shalt dash them in pieces like a potter's vessel." 
What language could express wide-spread, over- 
whelming calamity with greater force? Joel de- 
scribes that day with the utmost strength of human 
language : " Blow ye the trumpet in Zion and sound 
an alarm in my holy mountain. Let all the inhabit- 
ants of the land tremble ; for the day of the Lord 
cometh, for it is nigh at hand ; a day of darkness 
and of gloominess, a day of clouds and of thick 
darkness, as the morning spread upon the moun- 
tains." Observe the language of the last clause — 
gloom and thick darkness spoken of " as the morn- 
ing spread upon the mountains." To the eye of 
faith, enlightened by a careful study of God's Word, 
those «clouds and that thick darkness are all aglow 
with the light of the rising Sun of Righteousness ; 
and it is just when the earth is thus covered with 
thick darkness, and torn with unexampled tribula- 
tion, that Jesus bids His people " look up and lift 
up their heads, for their redemption draweth nigh." 
Then at the close of the same chapter the prophet 



330 GATHERED SHEAVES. 

utters the great prophecy which Peter quoted on 
the day of Pentecost, which was but a prelibation 
of a grander outpouring of the Spirit which God 
promises to pour upon all flesh in the last days, 
when " your sons and your daughters shall prophesy, 
and your young men shall see visions, and your old 
men shall dream dreams ; and on my servants and 
on my handmaidens I will pour out in those days 
of my Spirit, and they shall prophesy." Let us 
rest here for a moment and consider whether in the 
great work which the women of the Church are now 
doing, in carrying the Gospel and its blessings to the 
rising generation in their homes, in the Sabbath- 
schools, in the squalid abodes of ignorance and vice 
at home, and to those who are sitting in still deeper 
darkness in heathen lands, especially of their own 
sex, we do not behold a striking fulfilment of this 
great prophecy in which woman is given so high 
and honorable a place in God's sacramental host. 
Surely " the morning cometh." 

But even here, coupled with this glorious promise 
for the last days of a universal outpouring of the 
Spirit, we have " also the night." God, through 
the prophet, goes on to speak, saying, " I will show 
wonders in heaven above, and signs in the earth be- 
neath — blood, and fire, and vapor of smoke ; the 
sun shall be turned into darkness, and the- moon 
into blood, before that great and notable day of the 
Lord come." Still the morning and the night come 
together. Malachi speaks of that time of tribula- 
tion and terror as a day that shall burn as an oven. 
At the same time he speaks of the rising of the Sun 
of Righteousness with healing in His wings as a 



"THE MORNING COMETH." 331 

simultaneous event. But that burning of which 
Malachi speaks, that thick darkness of which Joel 
speaks, that dashing to pieces of which the psalm- 
ist speaks, and that awful tribulation and time of 
trouble of which Jesus Himself forewarned His 
people, will not be of long continuance. He Him- 
self gives us this assurance, saying, " Then shall be 
great tribulation such as was not since the begin- 
ning of the world to this time, no, nor ever shall 
be ; and except those days should be shortened 
there should no flesh be saved ; but for the elect's 
sake those days shall be shortened" (Matt. xxiv. 21, 
22). Whether the three days and a half (prophetic 
days) while the dead bodies of the two witnesses 
mentioned in Revelation xi. lay unburied afford 
any key to the duration of the great tribulation 
which is so much spoken of by the prophets, and 
with still greater plainness and solemnity by our 
Lord Himself, is a question I shall leave to the 
reader. 

We have cited only a few texts, but enough to 
drive home to our hearts the truth so emphatically 
and sententiously uttered by the watchman, " The 
morning cometh, and also the night." What can we 
do better than conclude with the watchman's laconic 
exhortation : " If ye will inquire, inquire ye ; return, 
come " ? for this is a subject worthy of the most 
earnest inquiry ; and He who spake as never man 
spake gave us this all-embracing admonition, " What 
I say unto you I say unto all — watch." And if, dear 
reader, you have wandered away to some dangerous 
ground of worldliness or vanity — " Return — come." 



THE COMING OF CHRIST. 

pANY of the most learned and eminent Chris- 
tians of the present day hold the opinion 
that what is called the second advent of 
Christ will occur before the millennium — that that 
happy period spoken of so often in the Old Testa- 
ment prophecies, and also in the New, will be the 
result of His personal presence among His redeemed 
and glorified people. This position can not with 
propriety be called a doctrine. It is only an inter- 
pretation ; and good men may take the affirmative 
or the negative side of the question without at all 
impairing their standing as orthodox Christians. In- 
deed some of the most devout and intelligent men 
I ever knew, both ministers and laymen, were de- 
cided premillenarians. Many an interesting con- 
versation I have had with those who held that view ; 
and although I could not go the length that they 
did, yet I felt that they had much truth on their 
side — more, probably, than those who hold that 
the second coming — advent is not a Bible word at 
all — will not occur until the end of the world, the 
general resurrection and the final judgment of the 
just and the unjust, are inclined to admit. 

In interpreting prophecies of events yet future, I 

think it is a safe rule to go back for examples to past 

predictions and events. In Malachi iv. 5 we read : 

" Behold I will send you Elijah the prophet before 

(332^ 



THE COMING OF CHRIST. 333 

the coming of the great and dreadful day of the 
Lord." From Matthew xvii. 10 we learn that the 
Scribes taught that Elijah would literally reappear 
before the advent of the Messiah ; hence the 
disciples asked Jesus, saying: " Why then say the 
Scribes that Elijah must first come? And He an- 
swered and said, Elijah indeed cometh and shall 
restore all things. But I say unto you that Elijah 
is come already, and they knew him not, but did 
unto him whatsoever they listed. Even so shall 
the Son of Man suffer of them. Then understood 
the disciples that He spake unto them of John the 
Baptist." These Scribes were right as to the main 
truth ; but they erred in putting too literal an inter- 
pretation upon that prediction. Gabriel, in talking 
to Zacharias in the temple of the son that was to 
be born, said : " He shall go before his face in the 
spirit and power of Elijah." The angel, no doubt, 
had Malachi's prophecy in his mind when he said 
this ; for both speak of his turning the hearts of the 
fathers to the children, etc. But Malachi's proph- 
ecy of Elijah is probably not yet exhausted. 

Our Lord's first advent was expected at the time 
He did come. Good old Simeon was waiting for 
the consolation of Israel, and so was Anna the 
prophetess. Under the guidance of the Spirit both 
knew Him when they saw Him in His early infancy ; 
but immediately He dropped out of sight and lived 
for thirty years in poverty and obscurity, earning 
His bread by honest labor like any other man. 
How wide of the mark were the expectations of 
the Scribes and the people of Israel ! They hoped 
first to hail the grand old prophet who had been 



334 GATHERED SHEAVES. 

borne bodily to heaven, and who was to return to 
earth as the herald of the great King who should 
re establish the throne of David, emancipate Israel 
from Roman bondage, stretch His dominion from 
sea to sea and from the river to the end of the earth, 
and reign forever. They imagined that all this 
would be a matter of ocular observation, just as 
our premillennial friends hope to see their Lord in 
open vision when He shall return to dethrone Satan, 
and set up His kingdom among men — the time for 
the fulfilment of the Father's promise, that He 
shall give Him the heathen for His inheritance, and 
the uttermost parts of the earth for His possession. 
But in so imagining, those ancient Jews fell far 
below the reality. " Behold, a greater than Solo- 
mon is here," said Jesus, while standing before them 
in the garb of a Galilean peasant, and while He was 
despised and rejected of men. Thus did the re- 
ality dash to pieces the vain expectations of the 
Jews. Yet they had quite as good ground for ex- 
pecting what they did expect as Christians of the 
present day have for expecting a grand epiphany 
prior to the promised triumph of the Church, as it 
is so glowingly depicted in the Scriptures. 

When the Spirit was poured out upon the apos- 
tles and upon the assembled multitude on the day 
of Pentecost, Peter told his astonished hearers, 
" This is that which was spoken by the prophet 
Joel: And it shall come to pass in the last days, 
saith God, that I will pour out of my Spirit upon 
all flesh ; and your sons and your daughters shall 
prophesy, and your young men shall sec visions, 
and your old men shall dream dreams ; and on my 



THE COMING OF CHRIST. 335 

servants and on my handmaidens I will pour out in 
those days of my Spirit, and they shall prophesy. 
And I will show wonders in heaven above, and 
signs in the earth beneath ; blood and fire and 
vapor of smoke. The sun shall be turned into 
darkness and the moon into blood, before that 
great and notable day of the Lord come ; and it 
shall come to pass that whosoever shall call on the 
name of the Lord shall be saved." We have here 
inspired testimony that Joel's great prophecy was 
correctly applied to the day of Pentecost ; but who 
will venture to assert that that great prediction was 
fully accomplished and exhausted on that occasion ? 
Great as the event was, it was but an earnest, a 
prelibation, of that greater outpouring of the Spirit 
of which Joel speaks, which shall reach all flesh ; 
and be not only coextensive with the habitable 
globe, but be accompanied with tremendous com- 
motions expressed by the strong figures of blood 
and fire and vapor of smoke — the sun turned into 
darkness and the moon into blood. The baptism 
of the Spirit on the day of Pentecost was local, 
limited, and not marked by any commotion either 
in the physical elements, or by the disruption of civil 
or social institutions among men. Yet it was the 
beginning of that fulfilment — enough for that time. 
Let us keep ever before us the vastness, the uni- 
versality of the promise, and the time mentioned: 
" It shall come to pass in the last days, saith God, 
that I will pour out of my Spirit upon all flesh." 
Can any believer wish for plainer or stronger lan- 
guage? Yet Peter applied it to the day of Pente- 
cost, just on the same principle that our Saviour 



336 GATHERED SHEAVES. 

used the calamities which were then impending 
over Jerusalem as the earnest of the great tribula- 
tion which should occur long afterward, as we 
would say ; yet not " until the times of the Gentiles 
should be fulfilled," as He expressed it. During 
the interval between the destruction of Jerusalem 
and the last great tribulation there should be wrath 
upon this people and " they shall fall by the edge 
of the sword, and they shall be led away captive 
into all nations; and Jerusalem shall be trodden 
down of the Gentiles, until the times of the Gen- 
tiles be fulfilled." This part of the prediction 
began to be accomplished history in forty years 
after the words were uttered ; and ever since then 
that scattered and yet distinct and strongly marked 
people have remained in the sight of all mankind 
an ever-growing attestation of its truth. To-day 
Jerusalem lies under the heel of the most formid- 
able foe which either the Old or the New Testa- 
ment Church ever had. 

Then (Luke xxi. 25), the divine Prophet passes 
on to the end of this age of darkness and trouble, 
saying: " And there shall be signs in the sun, and 
in the moon, and in the stars ; and upon the earth 
distress of nations with perplexity ; the sea and 
the waves roaring ; men's hearts failing them for 
fear, and for looking after those things which are 
coming on the earth ; for the powers of heaven 
shall be shaken. And then shall they see the Son 
of Man coming in a cloud with power and great 
glory. And when these things begin to come to 
pass, then look up, and lift up your heads; for 
your redemption draweth nigh." 



THE COMING OF CHRIST. 337 

The signs in the sun, moon and stars, and the 
" sea and the waves roaring," are figures, the first 
of human authorities of every grade, the second of 
aroused and ungovernable multitudes whom no hu- 
man power or law can hold in quietness and order. 
It is a strong picture of a reign of terror — of totter- 
ing thrones and popular anarchy. Yet Jesus tells 
His believing people to look up and lift up their 
heads, when they see these terrible things, for 
then their redemption draweth nigh. Malachi, 
under different imagery, speaks of the same thing. 
He says in his closing chapter, " Behold, the day 
cometh that shall burn as an oven ; and all the 
proud, yea, and all that do wickedly, shall be stub- 
ble ; and the day that cometh shall burn them up, 
saith the Lord of hosts, that it shall leave them 
neither root nor branch. But unto you that fear 
my name shall the Sun of Righteousness arise with 
healing in His wings." See the perfect harmony 
between these two sublime warnings and promises 
of what is coming — wrath and grace, gloom and 
glory, so strangely mingled. 

But in almost every place where the great con- 
summation is mentioned both in the Old Testa- 
ment and the New, these opposites are conjoined. 
See the great promise of the Father to the Son in 
the Second Psalm : " Ask of me and I shall give 
thee the heathen for thine inheritance, and the 
uttermost parts of the earth for thy possession." 
That is the solemn decree which issued from 
the Eternal Throne. Had He said no more, we 
might readily have supposed, as Dr. Watts ex- 
presses it : 



338 GATHERED SHEAVES. 

" That all was mercy, all was mild, 
And wrath forsook the throne." 

But the very next sentence is the language of wrath 
and overwhelming destruction : " Thou shalt break 
them with a rod of iron ; Thou shalt dash them in 
pieces like a potter's vessel. " How different is all 
this from the fond notions which people love to 
cherish of the coming of the millennium, whether 
they expect a visible coming of the Son of Man, or 
only a universal outpouring of the Holy Spirit, as 
Joel expresses it ! 

That "that day," so often spoken of in the Holy 
Scriptures, that great and dreadful day, that day 
that shall burn as an oven ; that day when the 
blood-stained Traveller from Bozrah shall cry, " The 
day of vengeance is in my heart, and the year of 
my redeemed is come"; that day of which Jesus 
speaks, when nations shall be in perplexity, the sea 
and the waves roaring, and the hearts of men fail- 
ing for fear of what is coming on the earth, and 
when true believers are called upon to look up and 
lift up their heads, for their redemption draweth 
nigh, is now drawing near, all the signs of the times 
indicate. The kingdom of heaven is at hand. The 
Lord whom His people have long been seeking 
will soon and suddenly come to His temple ; but 
who may abide the day of His coming? Remem- 
ber His own mysterious but pregnant question — 
" When the Son of Man cometh, will He find faith 
on the earth?" When He came in the flesh faith 
was almost extinct. " The world knew Him not." 
Why? Because He did not come in the manner 
people expected Him to come. So, I think, it will 



THE COMING OF CHRIST. 339 

be when He comes to take possession of the earth 
according to the promise of the Father. In the 
Ninety-seventh Psalm we are told how He will 
come, and it is in perfect accordance with all the 
other prophets, Jesus Himself included. " Clouds 
and darkness are round about Him ; righteousness 
and judgment are the habitation (or establishment) 
of His throne. A fire goeth before Him and burn- 
etii up His enemies round about. His lightnings 
enlightened the world ; the earth saw and trembled. 
The hills melted like wax at the presence of the 
Lord, at the presence of the Lord of the whole 
earth." It will be a time of trouble, of darkness 
and rebuke. Daniel (xii. 1) says, " there shall be a 
time of trouble such as never was since there was 
a nation even to that same time ; and at that time 
Thy people shall be delivered." There will be but 
few on earth whose faith will be strong enough to 
see, through the shadows, clouds, and darkness of 
" that day," the glory that lies beyond. 

Milton, in his " Paradise Lost," draws a terrific 
picture of a war in heaven between the loyal and 
the rebellious angels. His imaginary picture is 
based upon Rev. xii. 7. He locates the conflict 
not on earth, but in heaven, and fixes the time be- 
fore man was created. He gives the details of the 
battle, which continued for several days, until at 
length the contending hosts tore up the hills of 
heaven and hurled them upon each other until all 
was wreck and ruin around them. But neither 
could prevail over the other. At length, after the 
fidelity and courage of the faithful angels had been 
sufficiently tried, the Son, armed with almighty 



340 GATHERED SHEAVES. 

power, mounted His chariot and drove to the field 
of conflict. At His approach the hills went back 
to their places, clothed as before with forests and 
flowers in all the grandeur and beauty of the celes- 
tial landscape. So He describes that better world, 
and then remarks : 

" Earth hath this variety from Heaven, 
Of pleasure situate in hill and dale." 

The Son then calls His faithful warriors from the 
field of conflict with words of high commendation, 
and bids them stand while He, with a countenance 
changed to terror " too fierce to be beheld," turns 
upon the rebel hosts and drives them over the bat- 
tlements of heaven down to the bottomless pit. 
It is a daring flight of poetic imagination too bold 
to meet the approbation of the reverent believer. 
But, after all, Milton wrote better than he himself 
knew ; for it is only necessary to change the theatre 
of the conflict which he describes from that world 
to this, the faithful angels to the faithful among 
men, and to extend the period of the battle from 
three or four days to mors than eighteen centuries, 
to have an allegorical picture of the Church mili- 
tant. The loyal angels were not able to prevail 
against that rebel host led by Satan, as Milton tells 
us ; nor have the saints been able to cope with and 
overthrow the powers of darkness in this world. But 
we have full assurance that when the Son of Man 
shall come the kingdom of Satan shall fall as light- 
ning from heaven. 

The kindness of the Son to His faithful warriors 
who had done what they could, as Milton so touch- 



THE COMING OF CHRIST. 341 

ingly portrays it, in marshalling them as honored 
spectators of the total rout of the mighty and ma- 
lignant host against which they had long contended, 
is very suggestive of the kind words of the Lord of 
hosts to His faithful people as we read them in the 
two closing verses of Isaiah xxvi., and which apply 
to the events of which we have been speaking : 
" Come, my people, enter thou into thy chambers, 
and shut thy doors about thee ; hide thyself as it 
were for a little moment until the indignation be 
overpast ; for behold the Lord cometh out of His 
place to punish the inhabitants of the earth for their 
iniquity ; the earth also shall disclose her blood 
and shall no more cover her slain." 

This is enough for one article. From what I have 
said, the reader will perceive that I am one of those 
who believe that Christ will come and take to Him- 
self His great power and reign, and receive of the 
Father the heathen (or the nations) for His inherit- 
ance, and the uttermost parts of the earth as His 
possession, ere the Church can hope to see that glori- 
ous period or age commonly called the millennium ; 
that He will do what His people could never do. 
But in the expected manner of His coming, I am 
not at agreement with most of our premillenarian 
brethren. The discussion of that point will afford 
subject matter for another paper. 




! NOT WITH OBSERVATION." 

j|N a recent article I discussed "Christ's 
Comings." I now propose to follow up the 
subject a little farther, confining what will 
be said at this time to that coming mentioned in 
Revelation xi. 15, when " the kingdom of the world 
shall become the kingdom of our Lord and of His 
Christ, and He shall reign forever and ever" (re- 
vised version). This, we may safely assume, is the 
same period of which our Lord is speaking, where 
He says (Matt. xxiv. 14, revised version): "This 
gospel of the kingdom shall be preached in the 
whole world for a testimony unto all the nations ; 
AND THEN SHALL THE END COME." 

But the end of what? The end of the rule of 
that evil one whom our Saviour calls the prince of 
this world ; the end of the Church militant, and the 
beginning of the Church triumphant ; the end of 
discord, confusion, and war, and the beginning of 
the reign of order, righteousness, and peace ; the 
end of hostility among the nations, and the gather- 
ing of them together as one kingdom, having one 
King, as one flock, having one Shepherd ; and be 
that set time when the sublime decree found in the 
Second Psalm, that the heathen shall be given to 
the Son for an inheritance and the uttermost parts of 
the earth for His possession, shall be accomplished. 
The long conflict between the powers of light and 
(342) 



"NOT WITH OBSERVATION. 343 

of darkness will then be ended, and the kingdom of 
heaven established. That kingdom " shall not be 
left to other people," says Daniel in interpreting 
Nebuchadnezzar's dream of the great image, " but 
it shall break in pieces and consume all those king- 
doms, and it shall stand forever." 

Now let us return to the Second Psalm, and see 
how the carrying out of that decree which gives to 
the Son the heathen for His inheritance agrees 
with the words of Daniel just quoted : " Thou shalt 
break them with a rod of iron ; thou shalt dash 
them in pieces like a potter's vessel." This again 
harmonizes with the awful picture which Jesus gives 
us of that coming time of tribulation (Luke xxi.), 
"And there shall be signs in the sun and in the 
moon and in the stars ; and upon the earth distress 
of nations, with perplexity ; the sea and the waves 
roaring ; men's hearts failing them for fear, and for 
looking after those things which are coming on the 
earth, for the powers of heaven shall be shaken." 
The powers of heaven mean in this and many other 
places human governments and hierarchies. But in 
immediate view of these tremendous commotions 
and terrors, Jesus utters these cheering words : "And 
when these things begin to come to pass, then look 
up and lift up your heads, for your redemption 
draweth nigh." This gracious assurance accords 
with the beautiful words of the 91st Psalm: "A 
thousand shall fall at thy side, and ten thousand at 
thy right hand ; but it shall not come nigh thee. 
Only with thine eyes shalt thou behold and see the 
reward of the wicked." A_nd also with this from 
the lips of the strong and blood-stained traveller 



344 GATHERED SHEAVES. 

from Bozrah, as written by Isaiah (lxiii. 4): "The 
day of vengeance is in mine heart, and the year of 
my redeemed is come ! " 

We come now to the point indicated by the cap- 
tion of this article. The proclamation that " the 
kingdom of heaven is at hand," is one which may 
be made to-day as truly as it was in the days of the 
Baptist ; and it may be near — we know not how 
near. The Lord, whom the Christian world has 
long been seeking, may suddenly come to His tem- 
ple. But who is ready to abide the day of His 
coming? When He comes will He find faith on 
the earth ? Who will be able to discern the Re- 
deemer amid the tempest of wrath which will pre- 
cede His coming — the roaring of the sea and the 
billows (as the revised version reads), strong figures 
representing vast popular masses in anarchy and 
strife ; Satan enraged to the uttermost, because he 
knows that he has but a short time ; while the 
kings of the earth will be taking counsel together 
against the Lord and against His Anointed. It 
will be the darkest and most calamitous time the 
world ever saw — a day so terrible that Jesus says it 
will for the elect's sake be shortened, else no flesh 
could be saved. Amid these clouds and darkness 
even believers will be ready to cry, as did their 
Redeemer on the cross, " Why hast thou forsaken 
us? " 

The Jews, in the days of Jesus of Nazareth, were 
looking for the Messiah, as Christians are now ex- 
pecting the millennium. They had no doubt that 
they would know Him at once by observation — 
that He would come grandly, with all the environ- 



"NOT WITH OBSERVATION." 345 

ments of the mightiest and most glorious of mon- 
archs. But when a humble peasant of Galilee 
stepped forth and claimed to be that mighty One, 
and made good His claim by works of which no 
power less than divine was capable, they rejected 
Him with scorn. So when He shall come in clouds 
and thick darkness, scattering ruin, havoc, and ter- 
ror over the earth, it will require strong faith to see 
the Prince of Peace through such clouds. 

Many imagine that the latter-day glory of the 
King of heaven will be slowly brought about by 
the labors of faithful, self-denying missionaries and 
other heralds of the cross. These labors are indeed 
necessary, for Jesus Himself says that this Gospel 
of the kingdom must first be preached among all 
nations before the end can come. They have now 
nearly finished that work. Like the men at Bethany 
whom Jesus commanded to take away the stone, 
they have done what they could ; but when that 
all-potential voice shall sound, " Lazarus, come 
forth ! " the Church shall exclaim in rapturous as- 
tonishment, " Who are these that fly as a cloud and 
as the doves to their windows? " " Who hath be- 
gotten me these ? . . . . These ! where had they 
been ? " Thus will the Lord suddenly come to His 
temple, to this redeemed world, and " the Gentiles 
shall come to His light and kings to the brightness 
of His rising." That glorious day will come, " not 
by might nor by power " — that is, by human agency 
— " but by my Spirit, saith the Lord." Thus will 
the consummated kingdom of God come; but, as 
Jesus says, " not with observation." 

O Christians ! push forward the work of carrying 



346 GATHERED SHEAVES. 

the glad tidings of salvation to all the world, and 
some of you now living and acting may see the day 
when the Lord whom ye seek shall suddenly come 
to His temple and fill the whole earth with His 
glory. 




THE TERROR AND GLORY OF "THAT 
DAY." 

j|N the same week on which our Lord suf- 
fered, as related by Matthew (xxiv.), He 
had a deeply solemn conversation with 
His disciples on the Mount of Olives. They had 
been calling His attention to the massive masonry 
of the temple, which to them looked as if it might, 
like the pyramids of Egypt, stand for ages. "And 
Jesus said unto them, See ye not all these things ? 
Verily I say unto you, there shall not be left here 
one stone upon another which shall not be thrown 
down." This prediction, which at that moment 
looked to the last degree improbable, was literally 
accomplished in about forty years afterward. The 
little company seem then to have walked on, after 
these remarkable words were spoken, until they 
came to the Mount of Olives. Meantime the minds 
of the disciples were strongly impressed with what 
they had just heard ; for the words were strangely 
at variance with their preconceived notions of a re- 
stored kingdom of Israel which should transcend 
its ancient glory ; so they came to Him privately 
saying, " Tell us, when shall these things be ? and 
what shall be the sign of Thy coming, and of the 
end of the world ? " The same Spirit which in- 
spired the ancient prophets no doubt prompted this 
all-important question. It is the same question 

(347) 



34^ GATHERED SHEAVES. 

which has occupied the minds of believers more or 
less ever since — very much during the first century, 
and then less and less so until the early part of the 
nineteenth. From time to time bold and presump- 
tuous men came forward with theories, extravagant 
and wild, in which they presumed to fix the very 
day of our Lord's coming, and tell us all about the 
battle of Armageddon, both its locality and date. 
So far was this nonsense carried that sober-minded 
Christians became disgusted, and their belief or 
opinions on the subject of the latter-day glory were 
driven too far to the opposite extreme. Among 
the great mass of believers the glories and triumphs 
of "that day," so glowingly portrayed by the He- 
brew prophets, could hardly be said to have been 
objects of well-defined faith or hope to Christians 
of the two or three past centuries. The progress 
of the Gospel among the unevangelized nations was 
very slow. That the whole world should ever be 
converted to Christ was held more as a matter of 
dogmatic conviction — because God in the Scriptures 
had declared that so it should be — than a matter 
of living faith which sets all the graces of the soul 
in motion. In this respect, however, the latter part 
of the current century — the very time we are now 
living — has witnessed a great change, which has set 
multitudes of Christians to asking the same ques- 
tion which the disciples asked their Master. 

The question was, and is yet, a perfectly proper 
one ; and not only proper but profitable. But let 
us stop and inquire what is involved in the ques- 
tion ? It is, strictly speaking, one question, yet it 
is triple in its form. First, " Tell us, when shall 



THE TERROR AND GLORY OF " THAT DAY. 349 

these things be ? " On their way to Olivet, just 
before the risen Redeemer ascended to His throne 
on high, the disciples ventured to ask Him : '' Lord, 
wilt Thou at this time restore again the kingdom 
to Israel ? " We learn from this that all that the 
Lord had said, and all that He had done in His 
life, His death, and His resurrection, had failed to 
dislodge from the minds of these men the delusive 
notion that the object of the mission of the Messiah 
to this world was to restore the kingdom to Israel 
and re-establish the throne of David. On that oc- 
casion He pointedly refused to tell them anything 
about it, saying, " It is not for you to know the 
times or the seasons." But not so did He put 
them off on the occasion of which we are speaking. 
In words of awful eloquence, partly clear, partly 
obscure, He launched forth into a long prophetic 
discourse upon the events which should transpire 
from that hour until the end — until the great con- 
flict which He began in His own person, and which 
should be continued in His people, His Church, 
should end in victory, and in a universal reign of 
righteousness and peace. 

" What shall be the sign of Thy coming ? " is the 
second member of the question. What suggested 
that particular inquiry can be nothing more to us 
than a matter of speculation. But He had just ut- 
tered His tremendous denunciations against the 
obstinate unbelievers of that nation, closing with a 
lamentation of infinite pathos over Jerusalem, end- 
ing with these words : " Behold, your house is left 
unto you desolate ; for I say unto you, ye shall not 
see me henceforth till ye shall say, Blessed is he 



350 GATHERED SHEAVES. 

that cometh in the name of the Lord ! " That 
promise that at some time He would come doubt- 
less fell upon their minds with great force and 
caused them to ask that question. To say to Jeru- 
salem, " Your house is left unto you desolate," 
would be to thorn a dark and mysterious utterance, 
followed as it was by an intimation that some one 
at some time would come in the name of the Lord. 
In their minds there was no question but that that 
coming One would be their own Lord and Master ; 
for they ask, " What shall be the sign of Thy com- 
ing?" In His discourse He mingled the then im- 
pending doom of Jerusalem with the long and 
troublous period during which that city should lie 
desolate and be trodden down of the Gentiles, as 
Luke tells us, and should so continue until the 
times of the Gentiles be fulfilled. So far the words 
of the great prophet are suggestive of trouble, con- 
flict, and every form of opposition — violence with- 
out and corruption within — as the history of the 
Church from that day to this verifies. For eight- 
een hundred years Jerusalem has lain desolate un- 
der hostile heels, and is so lying at this moment. 
But so far in his answer there is no sure sign given 
by which men may know whe*n the Son of Man 
shall come, and when they may expect " the end 
of the world." 

What are we to understand by the phrase, " the 
end of the world " ? The word here translated 
world does not signify this " terrestrial ball," as this 
planet is called in one of our hymns; nor does it 
mean the race of mortals who now inhabit this 
planet ; nor is it, I think, the termination of the con- 



THE TERROR AND GLORY OF " THAT DAY." 35 I 

ditions imposed by the Creator in Eden upon our 
race. The true sense of the word "world," as it here 
occurs, is "the age." It is so given as the literal 
Greek reading in the revised version. It means a 
period during which the world is passing through a 
certain state or condition. Geology teaches, and 
teaches truly, that this globe passed through a num- 
ber of successive periods or ages before it arrived at 
a condition fit for man or for the more perfect ani- 
mals. Before Christ came, the world of mankind 
passed through a preparatory age — not so much an 
age of religious conflict as of development. With 
Christ came the age of conflict — a struggle between 
light and darkness, and the battle has been long, 
because men loved darkness rather than light. But 
the light, nevertheless, has steadily gained upon the 
darkness, and will gain until it shall be seen and 
rejoiced in to the uttermost parts of the earth. 

"What shall be the sign of Thy coming?" was 
the heaven-inspired inquiry of the disciples ; and it 
is put on record that all believers may ask it. Jesus 
graciously gave them one sign, so plain, so clear, 
that none can mistake its import. Here it is. Let 
us put it in a separate paragraph, emphasizing every 
word : 

"And this gospel of the kingdom shall be preached 
in all the world for a witness unto all nations ; and 
then shall the end come." 

In Revelation viii., ix., x., and xi., we read of 
seven angels each of wliom sounded a trumpet. 
The sounding of six of them was followed by com- 
motions and calamities, woe succeeding woe. But 
the sounding of the seventh marks a mighty change ; 



352 GATHERED SHEAVES. 

for " there were great voices in heaven, saying, The 
kingdoms of this world are become the kingdoms 
of our Lord and of His Christ ; and He shall reign 
forever and ever." I submit to the mind of the 
thoughtful Christian whether that which Jesus calls 
" the end " is not the same as the great event which 
is set forth in this symbol of the seventh trumpet ? 
The pouring out of the seventh vial into the air, 
and which was followed by a great voice from the 
throne saying, " It is done," points, I believe, to 
the same thing of which He who spoke as no other 
prophet ever spake refers, when He says, " Then 
shall the end come." 

Now let us look for a moment at these Apoca- 
lyptic proclamations, especially the first. It speaks 
of the kingdoms of this world — not of another. It 
speaks of kingdoms — not of a single kingdom. By 
the word kingdoms I would understand national- 
ities ; but they shall be more drawn together than 
ever before ; for they shall be under one supreme 
and divine Ruler, the King of kings. Satan, the 
usurper, whom Jesus Himself called " the prince of 
this world," shall be deposed and shut up in prison 
(see Rev. xx. 1-3). It will simply be a change of 
administration — a great and good change, it is true, 
but nothing more. The outpouring of the Spirit 
upon all flesh, spoken of by Joel, will then take 
place. God declares that His people shall be will- 
ing in the day of. His power; whereas Jesus com- 
plained in the days of His flesh that His people 
would not come unto Him that they might have 
life. My impression is, that in that great day when 
the seventh angel shall sound his trumpet, and 



THE TERROR AND GLORY OF " THAT DAY." 353 

when He who purchased the world with His blood 
shall take possession of it, there will be nothing 
miraculous, according to the ordinary sense of that 
word ; but that the usual tenor of human life will 
flow on ; that all that is useful will be preserved ; 
that all the appliances of human skill and research 
will continue to be used ; but nothing upon which 
may not be inscribed " HOLINESS TO THE LORD." 
This great revolution will come suddenly — " not 
by might, nor by power, but by my Spirit, saith 
the Lord of hosts." It will be the fulfilment of 
Joel's prophecy, preceded by the terrors therein 
mentioned. Zephaniah (i. 15) speaks in strong lan- 
guage of the same tremendous event, saying : 
" That day is a day of wrath, a day of trouble and 
distress, a day of wasteness and desolation, a day 
of darkness and gloominess, a day of clouds and 
thick darkness," etc. (The reader will please read 
in this connection this short prophecy from begin- 
ning to end.) Although the predictions of Zeph- 
aniah had a partial fulfilment in the history and 
experience of Judah, in the same sense that the 
great prophecy of Joel had a partial fulfilment on 
the day of Pentecost, yet the main burden of both 
is yet to come. I say this with entire confidence ; 
for Jesus Himself tells us that when the times of 
the Gentiles shall be fulfilled, " There shall be signs 
in the sun, and in the moon, and in the stars, and 
upon the earth distress of nations with perplexity ; 
the sea and the waves roaring," etc. (Luke xxi.). 
The two predictions must relate to the same period 
of wrath, perplexity, shaking, overturning, and 
breaking to pieces, which we are told, in the vigor- 
23 



354 GATHERED SHEAVES. 

ous language of the Apocalypse, will succeed the 
pouring out of the seventh vial into the air, accom- 
panied by a great voice from the throne saying, 
" It is done ! " " And there were voices, and thun- 
ders, and lightnings ; and there was a great earth- 
quake, such as was not since men were upon the 
earth, so mighty an earthquake and so great " 
(Rev. xvi. 1 8). 

I have made but a few citations from the many 
which might be made of the terrors and glories of 
that day when " the prince of this world " shall be 
deposed — that day which Jesus calls " THE END," 
and which will come as soon as His Gospel shall be 
proclaimed as a witness to all nations. 

This world has witnessed many changes which 
men call revolutions — the putting down of one rule 
and the setting up of another ; but what are they 
compared with that one which these prophetic 
Scriptures foretell ? " Now," said our Saviour, when 
He had recovered from a shuddering and shrinking 
view of His neai approaching agony, " Now is the 
judgment of this world ; now shall the prince of 
this world be cast out ; and I, if I be lifted up, will 
draw all men unto me" (John xii. 31). For a mo- 
ment He had been sorely troubled in view of what 
He knew must transpire in a few hours ; but with 
Godlike power His mind darted across centuries of 
conflict to that day of which we are speaking, and 
instantly His utterances were changed from those 
of perplexity and horror to words of triumph, joy, 
and exultation. His Father lifted the dark curtain 
which then enveloped Him, and showed Him the 
travail of His soul — " the joy that was set before 



THE TERROR AND GLORY OF "THAT DAY." 355 

Him " — and He was satisfied. That was one of the 
darkest hours in that life of grief and sorrow through 
which our Lord was called to pass ; and we may not 
err if we look at that record as prophetic of that 
dark and fearful day which is to mark the close of 
this age of conflict through which His Church will 
be called to pass — "the end," of which Jesus spoke. 
It will be midnight when the cry shall be made, 
" Behold the Bridegroom cometh ! " Hence that 
mysterious and startling question : " When the Son 
of Man cometh, shall He find faith on the earth ? " 




LOVE AND WRATH. 

jHE New Testament is all aglow with the 
love of God. Salvation, in all its fulness 
and freeness, is but an expression of that 
love. Jesus in one single sentence expresses this 
love in words which go to the utmost verge of 
the power of human language: " God so loved the 
world that He gave His only begotten Son, that 
whosoever believeth in Him should not perish, but 
have everlasting life; for God sent not His Son 
into the world to condemn the world, but that the 
world through ~Him might be saved." This harmon- 
izes with the words of Paul in Romans v. 8, " God 
commendeth His own love toward us," as it reads 
in the revised version, " in that, while we were yet 
sinners, Christ died for us." ' l Let us love one 
another," says John, " for love is of God." Then in 
the same chapter he says with triumphant empha- 
sis, "God is love," and a few verses further on in 
the same chapter he repeats the glorious truth in 
the same words. 

These are but a few among many texts which 
might be cited in proof of that great and boundless 
love that pitied dying men. It was in this light that 
our Saviour and His apostles held up the Eternal 
Father to the contemplation of sinful men, so that 
they, seeing that He loved them, might be drawn 
to Him by the same great moral force. Hence the 
(356) 



LOVE AND WRATH. 357 

apostle John says, "We love Him because He first 
loved us." As soon as a sinner is thoroughly con- 
vinced of this fact, his love in return will be awak- 
ened — he will be drawn. In this light we see the 
beauty and force of Christ's words, " No man can 
come unto me except the Father which hath sent 
me draw him." No man ever was or ever will be 
driven to Christ. Jesus, when He contemplated 
His near approaching agony, exclaimed, " I, if I be 
lifted up, will drazv all men unto me." In all these 
great sayings the same attracting force is spoken 
of ; and Paul, in Romans ii. 4, tells us that it is the 
goodness of God that leadeth to repentance. 

But do not the Holy Scriptures speak much of the 
wrath of God ? Certainly ; for we read, " The wrath 
of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodli- 
ness and unrighteousness of men" (Rom. i. 18). 
This sentence is so comprehensive that we need not 
quote any more. But what is wrath ? We know 
what it is in an angry, enraged, vindictive, and 
vengeful man ; and I fear that many ascribe the 
same unholy and repulsive passions to the ever 
blessed God who loved and pitied our sinful race 
when there was none among them that did good, 
no, not one. 

Here is the condition of one who is under the 
wrath of God, as it is set forth by our blessed 
Saviour in that loving discourse to His disciples on 
the night in which He was betrayed : " If a man 
abide not in me he is cast forth as a branch and is 
withered ; and men gather them and cast them into 
the fire and they are burned." Calm and gentle as 
the words are, a more terrific text is not to be found 



358 GATHERED SHEAVES. 

in all the Bible. Think of a poor dependent crea- 
ture being cut off from the only source of life and 
blessedness, and cast away to wither, die, and be 
utterly consumed, in the fires of his own sinful 
nature, which nothing short of atoning blood can 
quench. God called, but the man refused. Even 
God Himself, with all His pity and loving-kindness, 
could not avert the dreadful consequences. He 
tried to draw him to the Saviour ; but he would 
not be drawn. To drag him or drive him into the 
relation of a child would be impossible. Such a 
thing would be an outrage even to reason. The 
force that was exerted upon him was sufficient ; for 
thousands and millions have been drawn and gladly 
came ; but he would not come ; therefore he must 
" eat of the fruit of his own way, and be filled with 
his own devices." 

Among the saddest things found in the dark 
places of the earth, where the " Glad Tidings " have 
not penetrated, are the painful offerings to imagin- 
ary beings who are supposed to delight in suffer- 
ing, but who are utter strangers to love, and whose 
wrath must be propitiated at whatever cost. Were 
these poor creatures to attempt to write the char- 
acter of their god in three words, as John does, they 
would say, " God is wrath." Blindly it may be, but 
truly, they feel that they are sinners ; but knowing 
of no Saviour, they are driven to these wretched 
expedients. 

This deprecatory worship seems to be a part of 
that darkness which covers the earth. It is uni- 
versal in heathendom ; and during the dark ages it 
penetrated deeply into the Christian Church. Dur- 



LOVE AND WRATH. 359 

ing the apostolic era, and for several centuries after- 
ward, the love of God in Christ was the inspir- 
ing theme of the discourses and the songs of the 
Church. Paul, in all his writings, says little of 
wrath, but much of love, and much of the joy which 
springs from a persuasion of the love of Christ. 
See the eighth chapter of Romans, how full it is of 
love and joy and triumph. The study of that chap- 
ter will show us fully what John means where he 
says: "There is no fear in love; but perfect love 
casteth out fear" (1 John iv. 18). The word fear 
in this place means dread ; not that filial reverence 
which is so often in the 'Scripture called fear. Paul 
seems to have been full of joy when he wrote to 
the Philippians. " Finally, my brethren," he says, 
"rejoice in the Lord." Then he calls them his 
" dearly beloved and longed for, his joy and crown." 
Then, a little farther on, he calls upon them to 
" Rejoice in the Lord alway ; and again I say, Re- 
joice." In writing to the Galatians he places joy 
in the second place after love among the fruits of 
the Spirit. It is a matter of deep regret that this 
grace, this fruit of the Spirit, is not more dwelt 
upon, more insisted upon, and more manifested 
among Christians of the present day in their wor- 
shipping assemblies and in their social life. True 
joy, when deep and intense, is among the most sol- 
emn emotions of which the human mind is suscep- 
tible, as far removed from levity and frivolity as 
anything^ can be — far more likely to bring tears 
than smiles or laughter. 

Some fragments of Christian song have come 
down to us from the early centuries. The earliest 



360 GATHERED SHEAVES. 

of which I know anything is ascribed to Clement, 
Bishop of Alexandria, A.D. 217. It breathes the 
language of strong faith, fervent love, and filial obe- 
dience. It speaks of joy ; but there is not a word 
of deprecation. Five hundred years later John of 
Damascus gave to the world his " Hymn of Victo- 
ry," one of the most triumphant and joyful sacred 
songs that ever was penned. It is an echo in music 
to Paul's triumphant shout that "we are more than 
conquerors through Him that loved us." Even the 
spirits of just men made perfect might sing it. 



RECOGNITION IN HEAVEN. 

|HAT the redeemed, who were acquainted 
with each other in this life, will recognize 
each other in heaven is generally believed 
by Christians, and I think there is good ground lor 
such a belief. It is certainly a pleasing thought, 
and a very consolatory one, when we are called upon 
to part with friends of whose salvation we feel as- 
sured. But there are some who have doubts on 
this subject. They wish that it were true, and with 
more or less assurance they hope it is true, but 
yet have doubts about it. To such I propose to 
offer some reasons why we should accept this pleas- 
ant hypothesis as true, and as one on which there 
ought not to rest the shadow of a doubt. 

We are so constituted that Memory is the basis 
of our own personal identity, and that that alone 
secures the continuity of what we call individual- 
ity. But for that we should be new persons every 
day, every hour. All behind us would be utterly 
blank. Without it we could learn nothing either 
of ourselves or anything else. Without memory 
even our very existence would be impossible; for 
no knowledge at all could be retained. In the first 
hour of infancy there is no knowledge whatever ; 
but there is something— we may call it what we 
please — that is capable of receiving impressions. 
These impressions are remembered and stored up. 

(361) 



362 GATHERED SHEAVES. 

Then the first glimmer of thought is awakened, 
Other impressions pour upon the opening mind 
from all quarters, and the combination of these im- 
pressions, stored up in memory, is what causes the 
mind to grow and become the marvellous thing 
which it is. Take gravitation away, and all nature 
would disintegrate and return to its original chaos, 
or nothingness, which in the physical sense is the 
same thing. So, take memory away and the rational 
being relapses into nonentity or annihilation. 

Our mental make-up consists of that which we 
have gathered and are still gathering from our sur- 
roundings. The mother at whose knee we sat or 
knelt contributed much. Our juvenile associates 
came in with their share. Our teachers with theirs, 
as did everybody who ever exerted any influence 
upon us whether for good or evil. So did the ob- 
servations we made and the books we read, and so 
did the Spirit of God reach us through His word. 
All these accumulations entered into and made 
part of the ego, and go to make up what each mind 
recognizes as his individual self. Memory fastens 
them to us and makes of them component parts of 
our own individuality ; and they can no more be 
separated than can a particle of matter be put out- 
side of the law of gravitation. It is what is re- 
membered that makes up the mind ; and to cease 
to remember those things which contributed to the 
making up of that mind would be the beginning of 
a process which would not end short of total an- 
nihilation. 

But what is the testimony of revelation on this 
subject ? The Bible does not set out to prove 



RECOGNITION IN HEAVEN. 363 

the existence of God, but takes it for granted. So 
it seems to do in the question before us. Dives 
was rich, lived in luxury and enjoyed his " good 
things." Lazarus was poor, and found some kind 
of shelter at the rich man's gate. The latter showed 
him a little cold and careless kindness by allowing 
him to be fed with the broken fragments of his 
own luxurious board. In process of time both 
these men died. While the poor man's spirit was 
borne by angels to Abraham's bosom, that of the 
rich man was consigned to a place of torment. 
Looking abroad from his awful prison he saw 
Lazarus resting in the bosom of the father of the 
faithful, and knew him. Jesus doesn't say in so 
many words that He knew him; but his petition to 
Abraham proved that He did, for He names him. 
Very likely he gave very little thought to the poor 
man while he lived, but he had not forgotten him, 
nor had the greatness of the change in their respect- 
ive conditions rendered it impossible to recognize 
him, neither did the vast distance which then 
separated them. But his petition was unavailing. 
Then his memory began to work in another direc- 
tion. He remembered his five brethren still on 
earth, and probably living as he had lived ; and the 
dread that they should come and share his own 
wretched fate prompted him to beg that Lazarus 
might be sent to warn them. With this picture of 
a future existence from the lips of Him who knew 
all things in heaven, earth, and hell, how can we 
doubt the mutual recognition of saints in glory? 

But again-: Jesus went up into a mountain with 
Peter, James, and John. While there He was 



364 GATHERED SHEAVES. 

transfigured and received a visit from Moses and 
Elijah, both of whom had been centuries in heaven. 
They talked with Jesus, but we have no account 
that they spoke to the three disciples. No doubt 
but the latter were thrown into an ecstasy ; for 
Peter, with his characteristic impulsiveness, pro- 
posed to build three tabernacles, " one for Thee, 
one for Moses, and one for Elijah." How did he 
know who these glorified strangers were? We 
may, I think, rest assured that there are powers of 
recognition in our natures yet undeveloped, and 
of which we have as yet no experience, no concep- 
tion. While I believe without a shadow of doubt 
that in heaven we shall know the friends whom we 
knew in this life, I also believe that we shall know 
all who have washed their robes and made them 
white in the blood of the Lamb, no matter when 
or where they lived in this world. My belief is 
that no introductions will be needed there. 



'WE SHALL BE LIKE HIM." 

| EVER did man write words more wonder- 
ful than these of the beloved disciple in 
SI the third chapter of his First Epistle. No 
language can be more simple or more easily under- 
stood ; none could convey a stronger impression of 
the glory and blessedness which Christ bestows 
upon His ransomed ones. They shall belike Him, 
therefore " He is not ashamed to call them breth- 
ren." He is the Son of God ; they are sons of 
God also. In Him the Father is well pleased ; and 
in this infinite complacency they are in their meas- 
ure sharers — they are " joint heirs with Christ." 

But, as Paul expresses it, " one star differeth 
from another star in glory." So is it with the 
saints in this lower world of trial and conflict, and 
in that higher world of rest and glory and triumph. 
In the starry heavens one star differs much from 
another in glory. In heaven this difference in 
degree of glory will doubtless be greater still, and 
this difference will consist in greater or less meas- 
ure of that likeness of which John speaks. This 
likeness will consist in moral qualities rather than 
in intellectual gifts — the widow's two mites will 
outweigh and outshine the splendid offerings of 
those who cast in of their abundance. 

Christ carried His peculiar glory from earth to 
heaven. Here He lived as the great Teacher and 
Exemplar of His people. Here He was made 

(365) 



366 GATHERED SHEAVES. 

perfect through obedience to the law which they 
had violated, and thus worked out their robe of 
righteousness. Here He was slain. Here He 
washed the robes of His people and made them 
white in His blood. Here He was made perfect 
through suffering, and found His glory in that suf- 
fering; and here He cried, when the hour of His 
great sacrifice had arrived, " Father, the hour is 
come ; glorify Thy Son, that Thy Son also may 
glorify Thee." In this world He seems to have 
gathered all the glory which clusters around His 
name ; for it is of what He did here that the multi- 
tude of the redeemed and the angelic hosts sing 
over there. Here He labored and suffered, and 
thus it behooved Him to suffer, as He Himself ex- 
pressed it, and to enter into His glory. 

In this world, in this life as a mortal man, the 
peculiar character of Christ as the Saviour and 
Mediator of His people was developed and shone 
forth. In that brief life He was made perfect. 
Here He " learned obedience by the things which 
He suffered, and being made perfect, He became 
the author of eternal salvation unto all them that 
obey Him." His spirit and His character are clearly 
and strongly set forth in the four gospel narratives 
which the pen of inspiration has given us ; and it 
is in this life that, by following in His footsteps as 
they are marked out in those inspired histories, the 
likeness of which John speaks must be impressed 
upon us. In heaven that likeness will be made 
more or less conspicuous in the measure that our 
lives here are conformed to the pattern which He 
set us in His life while here. 



"WE SHALL BE LIKE HIM." 367 

Ponder carefully the words of the great apostle 
in his first epistle to the Corinthians (iii. 10-15). 
Turn to them at once. In that passage we learn 
that it is possible to be saved, and yet suffer loss — 
possible to be saved, "yet so as by fire." "Suffer 
loss"? What loss? The soul is saved ; what is 
lost ? That loss is the loss of the glory and blessed- 
ness which flow from that likeness of which we are 
speaking — not the absolute, but the relative loss of 
it. Such souls will be saved ; they will be in 
heaven ; they will, in their feeble measure, be' pro- 
gressive like all the rest ; but they will be stars of 
faint light in the great galaxy on high. We know 
not that this loss which such saved ones suffer will 
be to them a subject of never-ending humiliation 
and regret ; but as the Scriptures call it loss, we can 
hardly imagine how it can be otherwise. Those 
who spend this life in building wood, hay, stubble 
upon the true foundation, instead of gold, silver, 
precious stones — those who are more diligent in 
laying up treasures upon earth than treasures in 
heaven, or in gratifying self in any way, will not 
bear much likeness to Him who saved them from 
the wrath to come by the sacrifice of Himself. 
Everything that is unlike Christ, whether it be in 
an irritable or unforgiving temper, or a spirit of 
self-indulgence either in food, apparel, amusement, 
or worldly honors ; or in uncharitableness in any 
form, whether in harsh and censorious judgment of 
others, or in the withholding of alms from the 
needy, mars or obliterates the likeness of Christ in 
the soul of the believer, and subjects him to the 
loss of which the apostle speaks in the passage be- 



368 GATHERED SHEAVES. 

fore referred to. All such shall suffer loss, even 
though saved — but "scarcely saved," as Peter ex- 
presses it. 

How many Christians live as if all they aimed at 
was to get to heaven — nothing more. If they can 
barely escape final condemnation it is enough. 
Their meetness for the inheritance of the saints in 
light gives them no trouble. If they can be washed 
in the atoning blood of Jesus they are content ; 
but how much of the image of Him who was holy, 
harmless, undefiled, and separate from sinners, and 
whose whole life was a labor of love, is enstamped 
upon their souls and shines out in their lives is not 
a matter of much solicitude. Their loss is great, 
even though they should be saved. But how fear- 
ful is the danger of running so close to the border 
of perdition ! 

We must be like Him in the present life : for 
here it is, and not in heaven, that that likeness must 
be enstamped upon us. Heaven will develop that 
likeness gloriously ; but we have no reason to hope 
or believe that it can be originated there. The 
Redeemer did His work here in this mortal life ; 
so must we. Here men beheld His glory, the glory 
as of the only begotten of the Father. They saw 
Him going about doing good. They heard Him 
say, " My meat is to do the will of Him that sent 
me and to finish His work." They saw Him scat- 
tering benefits and blessings wherever He went ; 
and they witnessed the meekness and patience with 
which He bore the contradiction of sinners. They 
heard Him pray, " Father, forgive them ; they know 
not what they do." In all these we are able to see 



"WE SHALL BE LIKE HIM." 369 

and hear what those who were with Him at the 
time saw and heard ; and in these we are able to 
understand what He was like, and by following His 
example we acquire that likeness — we become like 
Him. It may, it is true, be in so feeble a degree 
that the world can not see it; for John tells us 
that the world knew Him not, and again He tells 
us, " the world knoweth us not because it knew 
Him not." 

But the genuineness of that likeness is not found 
in the brightness with which it may shine out in 
this world. Brilliant natural talent may cause that. 
But it is found in its highest perfection in the hum- 
ble, childlike saint, however destitute he or she may 
be of natural gifts. Hear what Jesus says: " Who- 
soever shall humble himself as this little child, the 
same is greatest in the kingdom of heaven." And in 
what does this greatness consist, if not in being like 
Him ? It will astonish many of us, when we reach 
that brighter and better world, to see the image of 
Christ shine out in glorious and beautiful fidelity 
from the faces of many of His obscure ones whom 
we knew in this life, but whom we hardly thought 
it worth while to notice. They came to and went 
away from the house of God in unobtrusive humility 
and meekness, and their garments bore witness that 
they were like their Saviour in another respect — they 
were poor. 

But let no one imagine that there is any merit in 
poverty and obscurity apart from the graces of the 
Spirit ; neither is there anything in the gifts of 
genius or of fortune that necessarily hinders the 
formation of Christ's likeness in the souls of such 
24 



370 GATHERED SHEAVES. . 

as are thus favored. Still it is true in a large meas- 
ure that " God has chosen the poor of this world, 
rich in faith." 

How wonderful is the grace which has made us 
capable of bearing Christ's image at all ; for of all 
the glory that can be put upon creatures this is the 
highest and the best. In this the righteousness of 
Christ is not only imputed to us, but imparted to 
us ; and in receiving that likeness we become neces- 
sarily partakers of the divine nature, as Peter says 
we are. It doth not yet appear what we shall be. 
Eye hath not seen, nor ear heard, nor heart conceived 
what we shall be — how great, how glorious, how 
happy — but we know that when He shall appear we 
shall be like Him. It is enough. All conceivable 
limitations of the greatness, glory, and blessedness 
of those who shall be thus made like Him are re- 
moved. This likeness, as before observed, must be 
enstamped upon us in this life by regeneration ; and 
having this, how careful ought we to be not to de- 
face and mar it by anything contrary to the spirit, 
the precepts, and the example of Christ as set be- 
fore us in the gospel narratives. 

" We shall be like Him," says John, " for we shall 
see Him as He is." And then he adds, " Every 
man that hath this hope in him purineth himself, 
even as He is pure." 




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